Class_3-)CS7M 

Book ._I5_H_5 

Copyright N? 



FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



By 

Charles E. Robinson, D.D. 



Maltbie D. Babcock 

A Reminiscent Sketch and 
Memorial. Third edition, cloth, 
with four portraits, - net $1.00. 

" The picture is drawn as no one 
could have done it unless under the 
guidance of Love, whom Tennyson 
calls ' the great portrait painter.' 

' The most ideal master he, of all.'' 

" It was indeed hard to give any true 
presentment of a man like Babcock, 
so vivid, so dazzling at times, so lov- 
able always; but the writer's success is 
quite wonderful." — Henry Van Dyke. 

" No biography could have breathed 
out more faithfully or sweetly the 
lovely fragrance of this remarkable 
Robert E. Speer. 



Fragments That Remain 



From the Ministry of 
MALTBIE DAVENPORT BAB COCK 
Pastor Brick Churchy New York Cityy i8gg-igoi 



Reported and arranged by 

JESSIE B. GOETSCHIUS 



At7d voices are heard that only come 
With the -winds, fr 0771 a far-off shore. 

— Washington Gladden. 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming FL, Rev ell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1907, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



Library of cowGRESs 

Two CoBles Received 

OCT 5 ^90f 

A CoPvntW E"l7^ > 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 



To the great multitude who were 
cheered and strengthened by Dr. 
Bab cock's words and who still 
remember him with reverent af- 
fection^ this book is dedicated 



PREFACE 



DURING the years that have passed since Dr. 
Babcock closed his eyes on this earthly scene, 
to open them in the full glory of his Master's 
presence, there" has been a constantly expressed regret 
that no record of his sermons has been preserved. 

The present volume is composed of notes taken — not 
in short hand — and written out immediately after the 
service by the aid of a retentive memory, for private use, 
and with no thought of publication. No one can be 
more keenly aware of their limitations than the writer. 
Notwithstanding the fact that many who were accustomed 
to sit under Dr. Babcock's ministry have assured her 
that as they read they seem again to hear his voice and 
see his form, she has hesitated to put them into perma- 
nent form, hoping that other, fuller and better manu- 
scripts might be forthcoming. But as several years have 
elapsed, and no other series of his sermons seems to be in 
existence, and no sufficiently legible original manuscript 
has been discovered, she has at length consented to pub- 
lish these notes. 

During Dr. Babcock's ministry she was not a member 
of the Brick Church, and cannot account for the peculiar 
circumstances which drew her there and constrained her 
to take and preserve these notes, unless it was a provi- 
dential leading. Probably the most helpful modern 
sermons are those of Frederick Robertson, of Brigh- 
ton, — one series of which would have been lost to the 

5 



6 



PEEF ACE 



Christian public but for the fact that notes of the dis- 
courses were preserved in the same informal manner that 
these have been from the ministrations of Dr. Babcock in 
New York. 

In yielding, however, to the demand for publica- 
tion, which it seems impossible further to ignore, the 
writer wishes again to assume entire responsibility for all 
defects, and to admit the probability that in some cases 
she may unconsciously have expressed Dr. Babcock' s 
thoughts in her own words. Yet she feels assured 
that his thought is faithfully transcribed, and that with 
rare exceptions his exact phraseology is given to the 
reader; and she has reason to believe that these ad- 
mittedly fragmentary notes of occasional sermons will be 
received with appreciation, not only by those who were 
permitted to hear, but also by that far larger number 
who felt the influence of this prince of preachers. 

These fragments" are given to the public with the 
earnest desire that they may extend and perpetuate the 
influence of a life that was unique in its power and sweet- 
ness. May He, who was the inspiration of Dr. Babcock' s 
life, again reveal Himself through these printed words as 
He did when they were spoken. 

J. B. G. 



CONTENTS 



I 

SERMONS 

The Holy Spirit 13 

Power . . • . . -. ' ^7 

The One- Talent Man .... 39 

Hope 51 

Thanksgiving 65 

There go the Ships 75 

Prayer 87 

Affliction 99 

Little Things . . . . ... 11 1 

Opportunity 123 

The God Whom We Worship . . .133 

Work : I . 143 

Work : II 155 

Frustrating the Grace of God . . .165 

Atonement -173 

Foreign Missions 181 

Living Stones 189 

God's Plan 193 

Not Words but Deeds . . . .197 

Service 203 

7 



8 



CONTENTS 



II 

TALKS PREPARATORY TO COMMUNION 

Confidence in God 209 

Renewal 221 

Considering Jesus . . . ... 233 

III 

COMMUNION DISCOURSES 

Things that Survive 241 

Remembering the Lord . . . .251 
Joy 262 

IV 

PRAYER-MEETING TALKS 

Gethsemane 265 

The Parable of the Pounds . . .275 
The Parable of the Talents . . .283 

The Ten Virgins 286 

Rabbi Ben Ezra 289 

V 

BROKEN PIECES 
The Incarnation . . . . .311 

Parting of the Ways 311 

The Criterion . . . . . . 312 

The Habit OF Prayer 313 



CONTENTS 9 

Children . . . . . . .313 

The Holy Spirit 314 

Giving 315 

Christ IN THE World 315 

Power 315 

Love .315 

Communion 315 

Prayer 316 



I 

SERMONS 



i 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 



May our daily life he a ritual of the gospel. 
May we remove all barriers ; may we give the 
Spirit His opportunity with us that Christ may 
live in us ; may we not deprive Him of His 
opportunity by our sin. Oh, send forth Thy 
Spirit into our hearts that we may know our 
Father:' 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 



« And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
Comforter^ that He may abide with you forever. — John 14: i 6. 

GOD is a discovery, not an invention. God was 
before man knew of Him, before man formulated 
a theology. More than this : man knew God 
before he expressed that knowledge in a theology. Ex- 
perience always precedes explanation. The life is lived 
before it is described. 

You do not say, ''The Letters and Life of Gladstone," 
but, *'The Life and Letters," because the life makes the 
letters. You look at flowers ; you study, you compare 
them, you love and admire them, and the classified 
knowledge becomes botany: but the flowers preceded 
botany. You look at rocks, and see that this one was 
acted on by fire, and you call it igneous or plutonic ; 
other rocks appear to you to have been formed by the 
action of water, and you classify accordingly ; thus you 
have the elements of geology: — but did you see geology 
written across the rocks ? Did you see botany written on 
the flowers ? In every case, the explanation, the science, 
followed — did not antedate — the experience. Life is 
lived ; it is studied in its various phases, and you have a 
biology, a science of life, but always the life first. 

So with theology. Theology is only man's attempt at 
a systematic arrangement of what he knows of God by 
revelation and from his own experience. It is not final ; 
15 



16 FEAGMEi^^TS THAT EEMAIN 



it is not perfect ; it is not complete ; it is human ; it is 
not to be worshipped ; it is only an attempt. We say, 
** Up to the present writing, this is how it appears to us." 
But we do not expect it to be crystalHzed in that form, 
any more than great and good men of past generations 
expected us to accept their work as final. We hope to 
add to it ; we feel sure that succeeding generations will. 
Our knowledge is very imperfect, but we have some ; we 
do know some things, and we know that we know them. 
And because we know only a little and not all, because 
there remain some mysteries insoluble by us, some diffi- 
culties that we cannot explain, our ignorance does not 
cast shame on our knowledge. 

I carry a candle through the darkness, and it sheds a 
little circle of light. I hold it as steadily as I can, I 
throw out the light as far as I can, I trim the candle 
and try to extend the circle of light, and I see some 
things, and see them plainly, and rejoice in what I see. 
But some one says, See the darkness — it engulfs every- 
thing 1 " No, it doesn't ; it doesn't engulf the light from 
my candle. 1 hold it before me, and go on steadily, step 
by step, hoping and believing that some day all the dark- 
ness will be illumined. Use the knowledge you have ; 
proceed on that ; more will come as fast as you can and 
will use it. 

O I love mystery ! What would Christmas be without 
mystery ! What would heaven be without mystery ! 
Fichte once said, **If you held out your hands to me 
with truth in one, and the search for truth in the other, 
and gave me my choice, I would refuse the truth, and 
enter on the search for it " ; and so would I, and so 
would you. Mystery is God's allurement along the path 
of knowledge; it is His challenge to a hungry soul. 



THE HOLT SPIEIT 



17 



You sometimes make statements about the affections, 
the will, the mind, and you know what you are talking 
about. No, you don't. The affections? the will? the 
mind? — what do any of us really know about them? 
But we speak of them, and more or less clearly convey 
our thoughts, — not always stopping to explain seeming 
contradictions, knowing that fuller experience will unfold 
them to our hearers. So Christ, in that Upper Room, 
was talking to a group of plain men, not scholars, and 
He spoke (as we might say) in words of one syllable, 
stating sublime and incomprehensible truth most simply, 
and leaving it without explanation, to be understood by 
them as their experience unfolded it. He knew whereof 
He spoke. He told them quite naturally of the Father 
and of Himself and of the Holy Spirit. He made no at- 
tempt to explain and " reconcile " ; it was truth, and He 
could trust it to go out and do its work. He did say, 
" If you will live up to the knowledge you have, I will 
manifest Myself to you" — offering manifestation in place 
of explanation : and that we can have, and thousands do 
have. I do not know whether the explanation of Peter, 
regarding the mysteries of our faith, would be worth 
much ; but, O, what would I give to have His experi- 
ence ! I do not know how Paul would state his theory 
of the Godhead ; but, O, that I might know what Paul 
knows of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ! 

And the only way to arrive at knowledge, to gather 
experience, to receive manifestations, is to use the knowl- 
edge you now possess, to travel by the light shed round 
you now. I do not understand the chemical process by 
which bread becomes blood — the vital fluid by which I 
work and love and hate and endeavour and accomplish 
things. I know it does do this. I know the fact, and I 



18 FEAGMEl^^TS THAT EEMAIl^^ 



eat bread. I know the effect, but I do not understand 
the cause. I could tell you about what I attempted and 
what I accomplished yesterday, and also what bread and 
beef and porridge contributed to my physical upbuilding, 
but if you ask me about the chemical analysis, I cannot 
tell you. I cannot explain how the food forms chyme 
and chyle — (which, by the way, always seem to me as if 
they ought to be two German commentators). I do not 
know why, when I am startled or ashamed or roused by 
some pleasurable emotion, the blush mounts to my 
cheeks, and hangs out that signal flag between the phys- 
ical and the spiritual. But I do know that that blood 
coursing through my veins is my life, and that it depends 
on food, and so, trusting to my experience, I eat food, 
and I live. And the scholar and the labourer alike Hve 
by the same means. They may put the resultant power 
to very different uses, but it comes to them both. One 
man may use his new power to dry the tears of a little 
child, to help some struggling brother; he may use 
it in manual labour, while you use it to form a phi- 
losophy of life or to elaborate a system of theology ; 
but, in both cases, it is the food eaten becoming ef- 
fectual. Be careful that you who put it. to an in- 
tellectual use do not despise him who uses it in other 
channels. 

Men have taken the statements of Christ, and thought 
them over and pieced them together and tried to reconcile 
them (which they never can do fully, for truth is infinite } 
we shall never wholly understand these great mysteries), 
— but they form as clear a conception, plan, classification 
of the facts given to them in the Bible about God, as 
they can, supplementing it by their experience, and the 
result is a the-ology — a science of God. Some of us see 



THE HOLT SPIEIT 



19 



in it a tri-unity — a trinity. The words are not in the 
Bible ; they are man's effort to express what they see 
there. 

Then when I close the book, and try to see God in 
nature, I form a system called Natural Theology. It 
teaches me much. I see the majesty of God in the 
mountains. I see His power in the ocean. I see beauty 
in the landscape. I see infinitude in the stars. But this 
system is of little worth for a sinner : for there comes a 
time when I fall, and grovel, and despise myself; then 
God's power only crushes me, and His majesty belittles 
me, and His beauty is a rebuke, and infinity an awful 
condemnation. I do not see the love of God, — it is not 
there. There is only irresistible force. I do not see the 
Father yearning over His wandering boy. I must turn 
back to the Bible to see God unbosoming Himself in Christ, 
to see Him hating sin (and, O I am so glad He hates it, 
and I know I ought to hate it, and I do), but to see Him 
loving the sinner. I do not understand such love, but 
I can trust to it, and act on it. 

I want to speak of two points in conclusion : first, the 
explanation, and second, the experience, of the Trinity. 
I hesitate greatly over the explanation, — it must of neces- 
sity be so unsatisfactory ; but I rejoice in the experience, 
— there I am on sure ground. 

I. As to explanation : let me give you my metaphys- 
ical idea of God, — meta-physical, that is, beyond the 
physical, as above it. Metaphysics has been defined 
thus : When a man understands what he is saying, and 
conveys that understanding to his listener — that is phys- 
ics ; when he does not understand himself, and fails to 
make his listener understand — that is metaphysics. In 
view of which definition, perhaps I had better not give 



20 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



that explanation, or, at least, not call it by that name. 
But — I see in myself a composition that helps me in some 
faint way to conceive the Trinity, — the Tri-unity. I see 
in myself not a dual, but a three-sided personality, each 
element expressing itself independently, while yet I am 
only one man. (I know some here will not agree with me, 
but this is my view of it). I am perfectly conscious of 
having in myself a physical part, a mental part, and a 
spirit, — heart, affection — call it what you will, — these 
three working in greater or less unity ; and still I am only 
one: — I am a tri-unity. So in some way — some dim 
way — I can see that God may be a Tri-unity. But this 
is speculation, thought, analogy, — it proves nothing. It 
is very faulty at best, but may help to some conception 
of God. 

God is eternal and unchangeable ; therefore, since He 
is love. He must always have been love, and must always 
have loved, even before man existed. There must have 
been that in Himself, in His personality, which could be 
an object of love. He must have been a sodality, a fel- 
lowship, a brotherhood, a fraternity. Plato says, "Be- 
nevolence is goodness reaching down." It seems to me 
that love is goodness on a level — intercourse between 
equals ; and God is love. All forms of earthly love help 
us to understand God. In earthly fatherhood we see a 
faint type of His fatherhood ; from the relation of son — 
so beautiful even here — we can reach a faint understand- 
ing of the relation between God the Father and His Son, 
our Saviour. In the mutual love of brothers we find a 
mental rest for our conception of brotherhood in the 
Trinity. Love is not only the activity of one towards 
another; it is also the bond that unites them. The 
Father must love the Son, and the Spirit of the Father 



THE HOLY SPIEIT 



21 



must become the Spirit of Christ, forming a channel of 
communication between them. 

2. But let us pass on to our experience of the three- 
fold manifestation of God ; for now I know whereof I 
speak, and so do many of you. God's revelation of Him- 
self is generally divided into three parts — the period of the 
Old Testament, the time of Christ and His disciples, and 
the ages since. The first is called the dispensation of the 
Father, the second is the short period when Christ was 
on earth, and the centuries since have been called the 
dispensation of the Spirit. Yet all these manifestations of 
God were present in each, and the life of the Spirit has 
been the unbroken bond between God and His people. 
But for illustration of God's Spirit working in men, we 
must come to Pentecost. There is the power of the 
Spirit in its fullness, to which all the rest led up. 

You know there is a time in the training of a child 
when he rebels against authority— have you no recollec- 
tions to serve you ? — when he obeys because he must ; 
when he inwardly rebels, but a wholesome knowledge of 
the results of rebellion and of the laws that will then be- 
come operative, holds him to the path of obedience, how- 
ever reluctantly. Then comes a time when he begins to 
admire his father, when he says to the other boys with a 
flourish, You ought to see /«y father ! " when he no- 
tices how his father ties his necktie, and goes up to his 
own room to practice. Then I meet him as a young man 
of nineteen, and there is a grave look in his face, and a 
cordiality in his manner, and certain tricks of the head 
and fingers, and I say, How like your father you have 
grown!" First, rebellion; then, admiration; then, an 
unconscious imitation that makes him a reproduction of 
his father, and proves the father's life in him. 



22 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



You see a baby boy just learning to talk ; a few years 
later he is in school and about to say his first piece, and 
in the novelty of it he loses himself and blushes and 
stammers. You are sorry for him, but you smile and 
say, "It will come"; and it does, — he gathers himself 
and goes through with it. Not so very long after that, 
you see him again. Now he can talk ! Nor does he 
need to use the words of others. He is master of himself. 
He can speak his own thoughts with conscious power. 
A learner, an imitator, an originator. 

Do we not know that stage of Christian experience 
when our allegiance to Christ was dull hardship ? I 
know I must do this, but I don't want to." " I know 
this is wrong, but I'll do it anyhow." " I wonder if this 
is wrong, and if I dare, as a Christian, do that ? " That 
is all very unsatisfactory ; we are just beginning. But 
we pass on from this to a point where we honestly long to 
be like Christ and honestly try. We make good reso- 
lutions and we break them. We resolve that we will not 
lose our tempers, that we will be sweet and thoughtful and 
forgiving and Christlike, and the resolution lasts to-day, 
to-morrow, the next day, perhaps, and then we fall — we 
are down again, and we say " It is all of no use." O yes, 
it is ! It is of great use ; it is fundamental. Where is 
the trouble ? It is here — you are living in the second stage 
of development, the stage of admiration and conscious 
imitation, not yet of the unconscious reception of the life 
that will find its own expression. Keep on with the imi- 
tation till the life develops, as it surely will. These ef- 
forts are like the candle ; they will guide you safely to 
Him. You try to develop the fruits of the Spirit, and 
when you least expect it the fruits of the flesh become 
manifest. They hang from the branches of the tree, and 



THE HOLY SPIEIT 23 



in your disappointment and discouragement, you tear 
them down, only to find that that is useless, for the bud 
remains, and will again develop. There is no help for 
you but in the acquisition of a new life that will live in 
and through you. 

Paul speaks of these three stages in a Christian's growth 
in his letter to his beloved church at Philippi : — first, the 
struggle with the flesh, Not having mine own righteous- 
ness, which is of the law ' ' ; then, the watching and imi- 
tation of Christ, I press towards the mark"; and, 
finally, the consciousness that he " can do all things" by 
the indwelling power. His life had then become a life of 
power, with an inward force finding expression through 
him. This is inspirit-ation, inspiration ! 

How shall you attain to it ? By being faithful in con- 
scious imitation. Say to yourself, ''Christ has in the 
world no hands with which to help others; I will be 
hands to Him : He has no feet to go to those who suffer ; 
I will go : He has no mouth with which to speak comfort 
toothers; I will speak for Him." Live for Him, and 
that means living for others. Parents, live for your chil- 
dren ; don't expect them to live for you. Show them an 
example of self-forgetting parenthood, that they may know 
God better, and grow up to be even nobler than the fa- 
' thers and mothers who trained them. Be courteous to 
servants. Show honourable dealing to employees ; and 
do it all consciously for Christ's sake. However often 
you have done it before, deed yourself over to Christ 
again to-day, and act as if He would keep His promises. 
You need not urge or entreat Him to come to you ; He is 
standing, waiting, longing to come ; only be sure you do 
not close the door. Take His power — He holds it ready 
for you. 



24 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



Do you want to serve Christ ? — I do. 

Are you a Christian ? — I am. 

Have you given yourself to Him ? — Yes. 

Do you try to serve Him ? — Yes. 

Are you afraid of the future ? — No, I am not ! 

How do you know you are His — that He has accepted 
you ? — Why, I trust what He says, Him that cometh to 
Me, I will in no wise cast out." 

Then you came by faith ? — Yes. 

And you hold to Him by faith ? — Yes. 

Then can't you take this next step by faith, and sur- 
render yourself anew to Him, and let Him dwell in you 
till conscious imitation is all past, your life having been 
absorbed and transfigured, and you present His life un- 
consciously, irresistibly ? 

*• Oh, 'ti5 life, of which our nerves are scant ; 
'Tis life, full life, for which we pant ; 
'Tis life, and fuller, that we want ! " 

**To as many as received Him, to them gave He the 
right to become sons of God ' ' — yes, the right ! but we 
want the power ; how shall we get it ? 

Let me close with those words from Galatians, When 
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, 
made under the law, made of a woman, to redeem them that 
were under the law, that ye might receive the adoption of 
sons [and with the adoption, the power to live and act 
like sons], and because ye are sons [and you are] He hath 
sent forth the Spirit of His Son [the Spirit of Christ ; the 
very Spirit that animated Him] into your hearts, that you 
too might cry [that the new life in you would be crying], 
'Abba— Father.' " 

Yield yourselves to Him; let His life have free course 



THE HOLY SPIEIT 



25 



in you ; let him use you ; give up your will ; try to think 
less of yourself, to stop envying others. Be careful not 
to hold the door closed, but let the Spirit of Christ in, 
and let Him so work on you that you too become sons 
and daughters of God. 



POWER 



Command in us more hunger and thirst. Is 
a friendship breaking, a sorrow looming up 
ahead of us ? Is there some plan which, it 
seem to us, must come true, because for every 
reason we can see, it is a good plan ? — Thou 
knowest,*^ 



POWER 

" In demonstration of the Spirit and of power^ — I CoR. 2 : 4. 

THE keynote of Christianity is power, not words. 
Any one can talk ; every one can talk ; man is 
essentially a talking animal, and always has 
been prolific in words, talk, speech, debate. We have 
our dictionaries, our lexicons, our glossaries — glossa, 
glotta^ a tongue. There are your Polyglot Bibles, /. <r., 
translated into many tongues. All religions have had 
their formulas, their creeds and liturgies, they have all 
held meetings and councils, they have all debated and 
discussed. Christianity has had its share of these things 
for good and evil, but its power does not lie in any of 
them. It is not the mechanics, but the dynamics of 
Christianity that have made it the unique force it is in the 
world, — not its machinery but its power. 

I want to speak of this power under three headings : — 
Power essentially. 
Power experimentally. 
Power evidentially. 

I. — Essentially or historically. Let us consider this 
power as it shows itself in the history of the race. See 
the great men of faith in the Old Testament, who lived 
in the twilight of Christian thought and principle — im- 
pelled by a power that made them do things. Look at 
that grand and solitary picture of Abraham, going out, he 
knew not whither, but trusting to the power which had 
spoken within him ; led by it to face the difficulties of a 
strange land, and to be strong and trustful in his loneli- 
29 



30 



FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



ness. See him with his son : — ''Shall the heathen offer 
their children to their gods, and shall not I offer my 
child? How can I prove to them what I claim — that my 
God is the only true God and supreme — if I am not will- 
ing to give my dearest to Him ? But he is my only son ! 
How can I doit? He is the child of promise ; — ought 
I to do it?" Nevertheless, he goes steadily up the 
slopes of Mount Moriah ; he does it, yielding himself so 
completely to the inward, impelling power, that he is 
able to look beyond the death of his son, and to believe 
that death, even, shall be as nothing before the power 
working in him. 

And look at Isaac's life after his father's death. It 
took tremendous force to hold on, with that quiet tenacity 
that never let the heathen encroach at all on his faith or 
his promised possession. 

^ Every God-sustained Old Testament character could 
be cited. See Joseph in the midst of seductive tempta- 
tions, which appealed to all the intensity and ambition of 
youth and not to passions flickered out, drawing back in 
the conscious possession of power : — " How can I do this 
great wrong, and sin against God ! " 

The Three Children in the fiery furnace. O, there is 
tremendously concentrated force in those three simple 
words — hut if not y The three Hebrews stand before 
the king, the ordeal of fire before them, and they 
calmly say, We are not careful to answer thee in 
this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is 
able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and He 
will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not'^ 
— well, \i not^ what then? — "be it known unto thee, O 
king, that we will not serve thy gods, or worship the 
golden image that thou hast set up ! " ThatmdiS power / 



P O W E E 



31 



Come down to New Testament times. See how the 
phraseology of the New Testament teems with this word 
power. See how Christ used and claimed it. Note th-e 
texts in which the word occurs: — "For with power He 
commanded the unclean spirits and they came out of 
them." **The power of the Lord was present to heal 
them." " They were all amazed at the power of God." 
" But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power 
on earth to forgive sins * ' — that ye may know. No man 
can see sins being forgiven — no one can put that to the 
test, but that ye may see the action of power where it will 
appeal to you, I will heal him. And He turned, and 
said to the sick of the palsy, * Take up thy bed, and go 
into thine house.' . . . Then they glorified God, who 
had given such power unto men." Christ claimed that 
He had power to lay down His Hfe, and power to take 
it again. When He was going away. He commanded 
His disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be 
endued with power from on high. And after that power 
descended, see the Apostles ! See Peter as he answers 
their question, by what authority, or by what power he 
had done this great miracle, — " By the name of Jesus 
Christ of Nazareth," though he knew this answer meant 
stripes. Why, they returned to their company "rejoic- 
ing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His 
name." See the power wielded by them all : — " They 
that have turned the world upside down have come hither 
also ' ' ! And Paul — that incarnation of living, throbbing 
power, all derived from and consecrated to his Divine 
Master ! And consider since then, the endless train of 
those who by their own claim were empowered by Christ 
and have moved the world. 

II. We come now to the consideration of the power 



32 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



actuating the Christian life, as it appears experi7nentally. 
The etymology of the word helps to its understanding. 
Experience is from the same root, ex, out, and periri to 
touch, to try. Experience is what comes to you by t7'y- 
ing out, and it thus becomes part of you. To experiment 
is to try ; and the expert is he who has experienced and 
knows. Only by touching, trying, experimenting, do 
you get experience, by which you know in a practical 
way. 

So, if you really want to know God and the truth of 
Christianity, experiment ! Christ invites you to this. It 
is His chosen way of revealing truth. It is the word 
graven on the threshold of His glorious Temple. Come 
in ; try and test it all, and see if it does not prove itself 
to you. You object that you want to know before you 
enter ; but that isn't reasonable, nor logical, nor scientific. 
No branch of human learning yields up its mysteries to a 
mere desire to know, but to investigation only. Apply 
the same principle here and test the results. Do the will, 
and you shall know of the doctrine. 

That was a wise word of Gamaliel, wise and dignified, 
amid the clamour and fury of the excited council : — " Let 
them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it 
will come to naught ; but if it be of God, ye cannot 
overthrow it." Then why not stand aside, and view re- 
sults without experimenting ? Simply because our lives 
are too short, and too much is at stake. And for this 
same reason, supplement your own experiment with the 
experience of others ; see how they have fared. This 
will not give you proof, but such testimony is strong pre- 
sumptive evidence. It is proof, but proof only in the 
case to which it applies \ it is strong evidence for all 
similar cases. 



P O W E E 



33 



A man has a nervous affection of the hand, and the 
thumb and fingers are drawn in. The doctors look at 
it, consider it, and say (touching a certain spot on the 
head, which they suppose controls the nerve-centres sup- 
plying the hand), <'Here is the trouble." Various 
physicians agree; — (I do not offer this as scientific state- 
ment, but only by way of illustration) — they apply a 
current of electricity to that spot, and the hand responds. 
That looks well. Shall we have the operation ? Yes, it 
seems wise. The trepanning is done — the scull is 
opened, the clot removed, normal conditions are read- 
justed, and forever after the thumb comes in only when 
the will says, " Come in." Now, that is proof only for 
that case, but it adds immense weight to the doctors' 
recommendation of trepanning in all similar cases. So, 
while no amount of personal evidence from others can 
be proof to you, it ought to make you more ready to ex- 
periment. 

Let me give you two strong cases from my own ex- 
perience. I have a friend, a very dear friend, one of my 
dearest ; a man working successfully for Christ, bringing 
men to Him, lifting them out of weakness into the power 
to resist temptation ; giving himself heart and soul, and 
giving himself joyfully, to the work of saving men ; liv- 
ing a beautifully pure and gracious hfe. He was once 
as nearly a confirmed drunkard as any man you ever 
saw. But one day Jesus Christ laid His hand upon this 
man's shoulder ; — he turned about, and has been testing 
the new life and the new power ever since, with the re- 
sult of which I have just told you. 

George Romanes was probably the greatest exponent 
of Darwinism in recent years, and the greatest next to 
Darwin himself. He had been a Christian, that is, a 



34 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



traditionalist. He accepted Christianity, but he ac- 
cepted it because it had been taught to him. He had 
never tested it, but he had advocated it, and considered 
himself fully committed to it. I will mention in passing, 
that he had won a prize at Oxford for an essay on Prayer. 
Professionally, he was an enthusiastic biologist, and in 
pursuing his investigations became convinced of the 
truth of Darwinism. He could no longer hold to Chris- 
tianity. The two seemed incompatible. To his mind, 
Darwinism was capable of proof and Christianity was not ; 
therefore, he put the latter aside. He did this with re- 
gret. He admitted freely and unhesitatingly that it left 
his life empty and barren, — he could see no light any- 
where. To quote his own phrase: **To me, those 
words have an awful meaning, *Work while it is day, 
for the night cometh in which no man can work,' for that 
darkness is already enwrapping my soul." But he saw 
no way of escape, in loyalty to the truth. So he laboured 
wearily on, becoming an accepted authority in all bio- 
logical research. At about this time he wrote a thesis 
attacking the very foundations of the Christian faith ; an 
attack, which, from its scholarship, dignity and calmness, 
was one of the most effective and dangerous the faith was 
ever called upon to meet. Two of my friends who read 
it — the book is out of print, I think ; it was never re- 
printed after the first edition was exhausted — ^but two of 
my friends who read it, men of deep Christian faith and 
knowledge, said, We actually trembled when we read 
it, lest the divine edifice could not sustain so well-planned 
and consummate an attack." 

There was a missionary in Japan by the name of 
Gulick, sent out by the Congregational Board, also a 
biologist, who made some very remarkable discoveries 



P O W E E 



35 



and some very successful investigations in his study of a 
certain rare shell-fish ; and, after infinite labour and 
patience, established an important nexus in the line of 
life-development — one of the most important, in fact, to 
the perfecting of the Darwinian scheme. It was hailed 
with delight by biologists the world over, but by none 
more cordially than by Romanes. He was enthusiastic 
in its praise and in praise of its author, when by chance 
one day he learned that Gulick was a missionary. A 
missionary I How could that be, and a Darwinian ? 

He sat down and wrote to him : " My dear sir, we 
are strangers, but on the ground of our common research, 
will you satisfy my questionings ? ' ' Were they question- 
ings and longings out of his own past ? echoes from his 
parents' faith ? a secret, though unacknowledged, yearn- 
ing for the vindication of the Name that had once been 
to him above every name ? Was it a longing to have a 
tenant once more in that tenantless room ? However that 
may be, he asked : How can you hold the scientific 
views you do, and still accept the teachings of Chris- 
tianity?" 

And this answer came : "I can do both because I 
apply the same principles of investigation and experiment 
to both. You know how I must have proceeded in the 
scientific field ; I have done the same in the moral field : 
for, though the field is different, truth must be reached 
by the same methods. I look about and I see certain tend- 
encies and efi'ects underlying and forming human life; 
— these must be accounted for. These tendencies and 
efi'ects are moral ; I must look for moral and religious 
causes sufficient to produce them, and I find, invariably, 
the best and highest result from Christianity. I watch 
this and its antagonistic forces in the lives around me 



36 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



and in my own life, and can reach but one conclusion if 
I am true to scientific principles of investigation and ex- 
periment. May I urge you, my dear sir, to try and test 
and experiment for yourself." 

And Romanes did, so that he came out of doubt and 
scepticism into the clear assurance of the truth as Chris- 
tians hold it ; and before he died, he wrote one of the 
fullest and ablest vindications of his recovered faith, and 
died most joyfully, — not going into the darkness. 

Are you afraid that your past life is so full of sin and 
defeat as to shut you out ? Remember my friend. Are 
you checked and hampered by philosophical doubts ? 
Consider Romanes, investigate, experiment ; and you 
will find that your sins are cancelled and your doubts are 
swept away, and you possess a new power. These two 
cases cannot be proof to you, but they should so inspire 
you that you would leave no test untried, till you prove 
for yourself whether such power can be yours. 

I can see how a man may refuse to test many things 
that are brought to his notice. Life is short, and a 
man must select. But I czxinot see, I zzx^not un- 
derstand, how a man dare leave this alone, when this is 
the all-important decision, and eternal issues depend 
on it. 

III. And now we come to the third and last point I 
mean to make: — this power shown evidentially y that is, 
power as evidence, as men see it in the lives of those 
about them. Life must express itself in terms of power. 
Where there is life, there must be power to some degree. 
Life might be defined as the power of adaptation. The 
chief difference between a living and a dead body is that 
the former is alert to every change of condition and en- 
vironment, and the latter is not, — it is powerless, it can- 



P O W E E 



37 



not adapt itself, and becomes the prey of the nimble fin- 
gers of the laws of disintegration. 

How we all revel in power ! What if it is only — why 
do I say " only," for it is magnificent — but what if it is 
only the power in the express train as it goes rushing past. 
Think of the power in those vibrating rods ! Or look at 
the engines of an ocean steamer, or, if you do not want 
to go so far, see the engines of the Priscilla of the Fall 
River Line. As you look at them, doesn't it send a 
thrill through you ? Don't you feel like saying : "I 
wish I were an engine of such power " ? And I think a 
thoughtful mind is always lifted up to the God of Power. 

You can be such a manifestation of energy ; you can 
be a living embodiment of power. Do you object that 
that cannot be true, because Christians as a body do not 
manifest such power ? But, because a man is bent over, 
and narrow-chested, and wants to be let alone, and de- 
sires not to be called on for any exertion, has hardly en- 
ergy enough to change his collar, is that any argument 
against health ? Because some natures are utterly in- 
capable of appreciating music, does that prove that there 
is no beauty in music ? Is it any proof against the power 
of electricity that a fuse is burned out, and the circuit is 
dark, and the trolley cars won't go? Why, powerless- 
ness in me is no proof that there is no power, but only 
that I refuse to appropriate it. God forgive us that we 
lead powerless lives, when-^^all power in heaven and on 
earth is in the hands of our Master, and He will put as 
much of it at our disposal as we need./ 

When Paul would give proof of his apostleship, he did 
not cite his great commission, or any vision or revela- 
tion, nor any great work he had done, but he pointed to 
his converts, — they were his proof. ''Why," he says, 



38 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



" your good works are trumpeted throughout the world ! 
Are ours ? Is any one talking of my life as a life of 
power? Is any one talking of your life as a life of 
power ? It should be so. 

Do not let us meet temptation with concession and 
compromise. When it comes to us, let us not dally with 
it, and then cry, ''Well — I can't struggle anymore; 
have it your own way ! " Make the spirit triumph over 
the body. Keep relations right; spirit should rule. 
Keep your temper before your children ; keep your dig- 
nity before your servants ; show honourable dealing before 
your clerks. Let power fairly emanate from your lives, 
so that they who do not care for the Bible and will not 
read it, may see in your lives a commentary on it, which 
shall lead them to it. Is this too great a demand ? 
Think of those words of Paul : "I can do all things 
through Christ who enableth, who empowereth me ! " 
And don't forget the alternative : " Apart from Me ye 
can do nothing " ; absolutely nothing ! Lose yourself in 
Him so completely that the chord of self, smitten by His 
love, sinks trembling out of sight. Let us go bravely, 
victoriously, into all places where He will Himself come. 
All power is His, and He gives to us the power to be- 
come sons of God. Take it ! 



THE ONE-TALENT MAN 



May the 7nemory of the consecration of His 
life he a challenge to our own. Lead us till we 
reach that timeless^ tireless^ sinless, deathless 
state, where there are no more sunsets and no 
more nights 



THE ONE-TALENT MAN 



" Quarlus, a brother" — Romans i6 : 23. 

I WANT to call your attention this morning to Ro- 
mans 16:23, " Quartus, a brother." Professor 
Ramsey and Professor Harris have been making a 
very interesting study of the salutations and greetings con- 
tained in ancient Greek and Roman epistles. They are 
similar to those we find in the New Testament : — ''To 
all that are in Rome, grace to you and peace." " My 
love be with you all." "All the saints salute you." 
"Peace be to the brethren." "The salutation by the 
hand of me, Paul." "Grace be with you." "Unto 
Timothy, mine own son, grace, mercy and peace." 
Such salutations are not Paul's only, but those of all 
well-read men of that day, much as we now say, " Give 
my love to the folks." That is very vague. Why not 
speciahze and say, " Tell Mary I think of her often and 
lovingly." "I hope the boys are getting along well in 
their studies." " I pray that the great sorrow that has 
come to your sister may be blessed to her." Then it 
means something. Read this sixteenth chapter of Ro- 
mans, and take it as your model. See how full of love the 
heart of Paul was, and how in the conclusion of this Epistle 
it burst out in many messages of individual love ; and use 
your imagination so that you can feel how people loved him. 

But who is Quartus ? Paul I know, and Timothy I 
know, but who is Quartus ? He is " a brother," just one 
of the obscure members of that Roman church. The 
epistle begins with Paul and ends with Quartus, the 
41 



42 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



loftiest and the lowliest, but brought very close to each 
other by love. Paul was a splendid lover and was splen- 
didly loved. One woman treats him as her son ; others 
would have laid down their necks for his life. He writes 
to the Galatians, " I know that you would have plucked 
out your eyes for my sake.*' Does any one love you like 
that ? Is there any one who would pluck out his eyes 
for you, because you brought him the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ ? /' Do not break friendship with Paul too easily. 
The man who said to me last week that he never felt 
drawn to Paul, may know him as the Rabbi, the Phari- 
see, the Theologue, but truly, he does not know him as 
the man. 

" Quartus, a brother " — that is all we know of him, and 
we know that only through Paul's love for him. Gains, 
the host of the church we know ; and Erastus, the city- 
chamberlain, we know. These are great names, but 
Quartus has his place with them — he follows in the wake 
of these great leaders. And I am glad that immediately 
following his name comes, The grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ be with you all." Quartus was contributing to 
that grace. It is only a coincidence, I know, but we 
have a right to our own little imaginings, and it is good 
to think that this obscure brother helped to bring about 
that great benediction, and, with others, sent a message of 
hope and love to the church which was at Rome. We 
are so used to our tattoo marks by which we classify men, 
and we think them so indispensable ! We insist so on 
labelling those who come under our observation ! We 
can have no real relations with a man until we have 
properly pigeon-holed him ! Here is a man who comes 
before us only as a brother, but by so coming he calls at- 
tention to his worth (all unconsciously to himself) and 



THE ONE-TALENT MAN 



43 



supplies the greatest need of the world, for the world 
needs brotherhood more than anything else. This man 
had his name in the book of life, but he passed among 
men unmarked, in the same uniform as the others, — the 
regular blue jacket — without bands. There is no gold 
braid on his clothes ; he has no carriage. Others ride ; 
he walks. But he is the man the world needs, needs su- 
premely. Quartus may be weak by himself, but when he 
unites with the many of his clan he is the mightiest force 
in the world. What he chooses, shall be, — it shall come 
to pass ; and what he vetoes, no power on earth can make 
successful. 

But unhappily he himself often fails to recognize his 
power ; he and his people, too, often say — say because 
they are not leaders, — I have no talent; I can do little ; 
my efforts count for nothing," and so the work of the 
kingdom is left undone (for the leaders alone cannot do 
it), — when, if each would only use the talent he has, if 
each would do his little, nothing would remain undone 
of all the great mass of work the Master has left for His 
church to do. Then our united power would be given to 

« The cause that needs assistance, 
And the wrong that needs resistance," 

and God's kingdom would come with leaps and bounds. 

Be ready to recognize Quartus, — he is the human ba- 
cillus, the life-giving germ, the vivifying cell from which 
activity and effectiveness go throughout the social organ- 
ism — the mikros bios. He is the drop of water which, 
with its countless neighbours, forms the mighty ocean ; 
the grain of sand which, with its fellows, spreads out the 
great sea- beaches ; the kernel of corn producing the fields 
of tasselled grain ; the leaf on the tree which, in myriads, 



44 FEAGMEIS^TS THAT EEMAIN 



makes the forest green ; the blade of grass forming, with 
its kin, the beautiful carpets of earth. He is what St. 
Francis would have called, "Our little brother. Atom," 
holding in himself the endowments and enduements and 
the marvellous forces on which all nature depends. 
Quartus is the leucocyte, — the white corpuscle in the 
blood, the free formative protoplasm of the life-current. 
He may have but one talent, he may be unknown, undis- 
tinguished, but in union he is a mighty power, and is to 
be reckoned with. 

Perhaps you may be able to say, I stand with Gains 
and Erastus." Then you, too, have your place, — an 
important and trying place. I do not underrate it. I 
know that you bear the burden of life, that you stand be- 
fore men where you can be seen, under a blaze of light and 
a fire of criticism, and the world has great need of you. 
The world needs leaders. But you are not so apt to neg- 
lect your duty as these less talented brothers, and so I 
appeal to them. 

Your name may be Primus or Secundus or Tertius or 
Quartus or Quintus or Sextus or Septus or Ultimus. Sup- 
pose it is only Ultimus, will you hold back the little that 
is in you, and so lose to the world what you might give ? 
Or will you say, I am only an atom, and not near the 
cutting edge of the chisel ; I am not even steel, but only 
a grain of wood in the handle, but I will do what I can 
to push the work along." O if you only would! If 
you have only a half-talent, or a fifth of a talent, then 
for the service of God and the need of humanity, I call 
on you to use it ! You draw back in your humiUty," 
as you call it. It is a shameful humility ! If you are as 
weak as you say, if you cannot inaugurate, if you cannot 
initiate, then — (let me say it here as well as at the end 



THE OKE-TALENT MAN 



45 



of the sermon) — then cooperate. If you do not know- 
how to secure interest on your money, go to the banker. 
If you do not know where your little will count, come to 
me and let me place you. If you are the last man in the 
line, still, stay in the line ; let us experiment together, 
and, though you be Ultimus, I promise you results. 

Now, in conclusion, I want to speak of two things in 
regard to Quartus — his danger and his duty. 

I. His danger we have touched on, the danger that 
the one-talent man will think his talent not worth using. 
He says, If I were the two- or the five-talent man, it 
would be different." Yes, it would be different, but the 
responsibility would not be different. Each one is re- 
sponsible for using what he has, not what he has not. 
He is still the individual, the indivisible, and God looks 
for returns from him, though only in proportion to what 
He has given him ; each man must give an account of 
himself to God. 

The five- talent man must give larger return. He is 
seen and recognized. There is a force acting on him that 
will allow him neither to sit nor stand, but go. He can- 
not rest ; he must be active , he must be at work ; his 
gifts urge him on like a fire in his bones ; he feels an in- 
ward push, an outward pull, and he does not think so 
much of others, — there is work to be done which he can 
do, and he must do it. But the one-talent man is apt to 
indulge in that odious comparative degree. He will not 
keep his eyes on the positive degree of fact, or the super- 
lative degree of endeavour, but constantly compares his 
lack with his neighbour's endowments and weakens his 
own powers. The positive and superlative degrees carry 
a man right forward, but the comparative degree deflects 
his attention; and he turns his head from the main issue. 



46 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



You say you amount to nothing, that you don't signify. 
Yes, you do signify or you would not be. You say, 
come into a room, — no one notices me. I go out, — no 
one feels any sense of loss. I enter an assembly, but am 
never invited to the platform. When my boat goes down 
stream, I do not notice that the banks are washed out much 
by the swells." Now, this is his chief danger, and the 
chief danger to the church of Jesus Christ. If all these 
one-talent members of the body of our Lord would line 
up, the treasury of the church would not long be 
empty. Other men go forth to batde, but these men 
stay at home, and so the cause flags and at least seems 
to fail for lack of workers. There comes an appeal for 
charity — others give, but these, because they can give 
so little, will not give anything, and the starving die 
and the naked freeze, for the five-talent man cannot do 
it all. 

This was the trouble with Meroz — ^just because they 
would not take their share in the battle. " Curse ye 
Meroz ! Curse ye Meroz bitterly ! " Why ? Because 
they came not up to the help of the Lord — to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty ! " They stood on the 
hilltop and saw the confusion, and said, *' There seems 
to be some trouble in the camp, but I don't know where 
to go, and I'm not much of a soldier, and my weapons 
are not in very good order ; I guess I won't go into it at 
all." The true man would have said, There is trouble, 
and I must help. I don't know just where I'm needed, 
and I haven't much skill nor very good weapons, but if 
they are in a strait they may be very glad of me ; and I 
must go ! " So the cause of the Lord is saved. Be sure 
of this — the commonplace is God's workshop, and the 
commonplace develops the uncommon. If there were nq 



THE ONE-TALEKT MAN 47 

mountains there would be no valleys ; if there were no 
lights there would be no shadows. The commonplace 
sun and moon and stars and sunrise and sunset and days 
and nights and seedtime and harvest and birds and fishes 
and insects, — why, it is out of these commonplace things 
that God has made His beautiful world ! 

Out of the fibres and fragments and atoms of matter 
are built up muscles and tissues and sinews and bones 
and nerves, and loves and hates and aspirations and vi- 
sions and dreams. The extraordinary rests on the ordi- 
nary, and presupposes it. Are you willing to be ordinary 
to support the extraordinary? ''O," you answer, "I 
do the ordinary ; I earn my living ; I try to make my 
house beautiful. ' ' But I am not speaking of these neces- 
sary things. Do not even the publicans so ? I want you 
to take a step from the undebatable necessary to the de- 
batable necessary. Here is something I might do, I 
could do. The church needs me. Christ needs me. 
But I don't know \ /don't amount to anything." Don't 
you, really ? Is that honestly your estimate of yourself? 
Would you be satisfied if you knew others rated you so ? 
Do you truly rate yourself so ? 

You say, ''I am nothing." Well and good; but 
bring nothing to the right side of an integer and it be- 
comes ten, a hundred, a thousand, incalculable, innumer- 
able increase. God's figures turn our naughts into bound- 
less stores of usefulness and power. He created the 
world out of nothing. He can use nothing honestly 
brought to Him. He is Creator ! He can use wilHng 
nobodies. I put it down on this lowest level, for I do 
not want any one to escape. For lack of the willing co- 
operation of the scantily endowed, the church suffers and 
is retarded. Because they are so far from Gains and 



48 FEAGMEI^^TS THAT EEMAIN 



Erastus, they refuse to array themselves at all on the side 
of the khigdora. 

II. Well, what is the duty of Quartus ? He repre- 
sents brotherhood. In one sense, the world needs this 
most, even more than motherhood. I had a letter from 
a lady last week which touched me deeply. It was writ- 
ten to enlist my interest in a young man, and she writes, 
'*I have tried to mother him, but he needs something 
else. It is like being in an orchestra to try to help peo- 
ple. Some are like the drum, and can be beaten ; some 
are like the cymbals, and you must take them up in your 
hands ; some are like the violin, they must be held up 
close to you." Is not that beautiful ? Some cannot be 
mothered, but they can be brothered. Go out to them as 
brothers ; that you can do, and so help them to realize 
the brotherhood of Christ. How are they to learn to 
know God, else ? 

The church, you know, is a kind of human bee-hive. 
The queen-bee is the most important member of the hive. 
It is on her account and for her account that the hive ex- 
ists. But she cannot go everywhere. The workers must 
do that, — and they are often hindered by the drones, for 
there are drones, — but the workers, consciously or un- 
consciously, must do the work. They gather the honey 
and the wax, sweetness and light. Now I am not ex- 
actly the queen-bee, though I hold a kind of position of 
headship here, but I am not a drone, and I am a 
worker. Nevertheless, I cannot go everywhere. I need 
you ; I need you all. 

Who then, is the man who can go to the bank and the 
counting-room and the office and the shop and the hos- 
pital and the workroom and the factory and the drawing- 
room and the concert-hall and the endless gathering 



THE 0:N^E-TALENT man 49 



places of men ? Why, Quartus ! He has the right of 
way ; he knows the password. He can go in the power 
of Jesus to all the multitudes that no one else could reach. 
So you see your calling. , That is a wonderful word, — 
that you should be called to a certain activity for Jesus. 
"You see your calling, brethren, how that not many 
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
noble are called" — "not many," some, of course, for 
the church needs leaders — "but God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- 
found the things that are mighty ; and base things of the 
world, and things that are despised, hath God chosen, 
yea, and things which are not " — which are naught — 
" to bring to naught things that are." So you see your 
calling. You are called to call ; you are blessed to 
bless ; you are helped to help ; you are saved to save. 

Quartus, do you see your calling ? Advocate what you 
know is right. Oppose what you feel is wrong. Throw 
your force against evil. Help the good along. No mat- 
ter if you are put out and voted out. If a man has given 
you help, go and tell him so. Let him have the comfort 
of knowing it, and don't withhold that comfort from him 
because you think he wouldn't care for praise ixom you. 
Stand for all things Christ stands for. Do you see your 
calling ? You are to be a brother to every one needing 
you, a servant to all wanting help \ you are to sacrifice 
yourself for others — to be strong where others are weak 
— to be kind as a big brother to the little brothers for the 
sake of the Elder Brother. Are all apostles ? Are all 
prophets ? Are all teachers ? You cannot all hold the 
places of Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, but you can 
all serve. Go and get your talent out of that hole in the 



50 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



earth — with this you can serve. Men, in your daily 
walks of life you can serve the Christ. Women, you 
know this. In your homes, in your social circles, in 
your philanthropies, you can serve Christ. 

As into the world we go, may we truly present Him 
who died for us, and lives for us, and waits to receive 
us ! 



HOPE 



O Lord, fulfill our aspiration not to be a dis- 
appointnierit to Thee ! May we be uplifted by 
the infusion and infilling of hope,'' ^ 



HOPE 



« For we are saved by hope.^^ 

" The creature was made subject to vanity y not willingly, but by 
reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope." — RoM. 8 : 
24, 20, 

" 1 >0R we are saved by hope," says the Apostle; 
1-^ but we read elsewhere, " By grace are ye 
\ saved" — by faith are ye saved" — love 
saves us. Here it is hope. Yes, but they are all 
true, because they are all graces implanted by Christ, 
and we are saved by our Saviour, God ! God is in 
Christ, saving us by His own royal love, *'and the 
life that we now live, we live by the faith of the Son 
of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us." 
Faith is this salvation taking an upward look to the 
God who was its author; grace is the look beneath, 
to the things from which we have been saved by God's 
favour ; love is the look around, going out in helpfulness 
to others ; hope is the look to the future, when we shall 
be with God. 

The Christian religion is the religion of Hope. It is a 
strange mixture of completeness and incompleteness — in- 
completeness here, that is to find its completion beyond. 
May this be a message from God's own Word to some 
heart here to-day ! Do not worry about the future ; it is 
safe in His hands. Do not fear to meet Him ; there is 
no condemnation to you who are in Christ Jesus — no 
condemnation nor any judgment at all ; be perfectly 
easy about that, if you trust in Christ. There is no great 
white throne for you — it is fled away. There is the giv- 
53 



54 PEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



ing an account of your stewardship, a passing in of 
your papers, a record of what you have done — but no 
judgment. So cheer up, if you are Christ's. All things 
here are incomplete, and are looking towards completion. 
Creation is still incomplete — the creature was made sub- 
ject to vanity by him who looks forward with hope to its 
perfection. And even we ourselves, who have the first- 
fruits of the Spirit, are yet incomplete, — they are only 
first-fruits — completion is ahead of us, and now and here, 
the setting of life is incomplete. But then, this is only a 
beginning. Paul wrote to the Philippians, "He that 
hath begun a good work in you, will perform it " — of 
course He will ; He is not a God who stops. His re- 
sources are inexhaustible ; we shall never get beyond the 
beautiful hopes He has laid up for us. Eternity is full 
of hope — it is only eternally beginning. " Now abideth 
faith, hope, love," — they abide, and need all eternity for 
their fulfillment. The hymn is wrong which says, 

" Hope shall change to glad fruition " ; 

no, it will still be hope with endless fulfillments, but also 
endless expectations. It is true in one sense, for many 
hopes will be realized, but hope will still be with us. 

Through all eternity, we shall have faith — some one to 
trust ; and hope — something to look forward to ; and 
love — some one on whom to lavish our affection, never 
thrown back coldly on ourselves. That is the joy of 
eternity. There we shall be satisfied, and our ever-form- 
ing hope will be satisfied, too. 

There is no satisfaction here, but a blessed unrest. 
This is our goad and incentive. Some things never can 
come true here. Much of this life seems like chaos, but 
it is only incompleteness — beginnings whose ends we 



HOPE 



55 



cannot trace ; aims whose purpose we cannot measure ; 
ambitions and aspirations which we groan to express and 
fulfill. Yes, here we groan, being burdened and con- 
fused, but it is a groan towards God. Is your spirit rest- 
less ? Do your powers flag and fail ? These are prophe- 
sies of that future life which alone is full enough to satisfy. 
In second Corinthians Paul says, Thanks be to God 
who causeth us to triumph ! " Yes, those moments do 
come to rest and refresh us, — they are the first-fruits, the 
bunch of grapes from Eshcol. The vine is over there, 
and we have only the bunch of grapes here — only the 
foretaste, but can we not revel in the thrill of joy He 
often sends us as some gleam of the great hope bursts 
forth? O be strong! Say to yourself, "I can do it; 
I will do it ! " Be willful in this matter. You feel the 
power in exalted, lonely moments; cherish such mo- 
ments, — they are the foretastes of perfect fulfillment ; 
they are sent to keep you hoping ! 

Have you never noted an evening of extraordinary 
beauty ? As you stood and gazed and bathed your soul 
in its effulgence, have you never felt a sadness creeping 
over you while you thought, '* This will soon pass, and 
night will come " ? Or have you thought, " This is as 
an entrance into a beauty no mind can conceive " ? So 
with the moments of hope and inspiration, — they pass, 
and reaction comes. 

But, no, they are not lost. Is this present experience 
what your life really is ? Ah, no ; this is but the forecast 
and foretaste of what it will be in its perfect fullness. 
These are the most beautiful moments of life. They are 
what start the martyr's pulse, and set him aglow to bear 
and face all things, to attain completion. You are in a 
world that belongs to the God of Hope. The very in- 



56 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



completeness is a prophecy. Turn your face to the east, 
and see the glory of the sunrise — it is as nothing to the 
glory of the perfect day which has no night. Birth is 
given to the flower that it may perfect its fruit and seed, 
— a perpetual carrying on of life. 

Did you ever see them fishing for mackerel or porgies 
on the New England coast ? They have nets with corks 
on top, and leads at the bottom — corks and leads. If 
there were only corks, the net would float on the surface 
of the water and drift away ; if there were only leads, it 
would drop to the bottom and be useless. But with 
corks and leads properly balanced, it stands in its place 
and encloses the school of fish. We have duties, dis- 
ciplines, weights, — these are the heavy things to hold us 
down and make us useful ; and He sends hope into our 
lives to make us men and keep us buoyant. 

Other religions have no hope. Sir Henry Maine, 
who from long residence in the East was qualified to 
speak on the subject, says that the hopelessness of all 
other faiths is the most pitiful element in them. They 
are utterly without hope. The noblest of them is Bud- 
dhism, and its noblest conception is extinction ; it is aim- 
less, profitless — a sinking into nothingness — Nirvana ! 
The Stoic is the noblest man outside of Christianity. If 
I couldn't be a Christian, I'd be a Stoic; if I couldn't 
live at Jerusalem, I'd live at Sparta. He faces life 
bravely. He will not let his lips tremble. He passes 
great sorrows off with a maxim, and dies when he must, 
without a quiver. But noble as that is, it is nothing to 
Christianity. Christianity lifts us, not out of burdens, 
but out of the treadmill. 

Have you read the story by Story-Tell Lib" about 
the horse that was going somewhere? He was in a 



HOPE 



57 



treadmill. He was always cheerful because he was 
going to go somewhere, but continually he went on 
and on in that treadmill. No need of that for you. You 
are going somewhere, because you belong to the God of 
Hope. Look over the shoulder of things^ and see the 
face of your God ! When a child turns and looks up 
into his father's face he is strong for anything. Christ 
entered into the world to bring hope into it. He said, 
" I do not deny that there is trouble and sorrow and 
much to be borne, and great differences in men's lives, 
and much to vex and annoy. In this world ye shall 
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome 
the world, and you shall. So, cheer up ! You are only 
a little flock, I know, but to you the Father has given the 
kingdom, so look onward and upward." The diffi- 
culties of life are sent to sift you. You can get no fair 
register of things in the dark, but with hope flashing 
over all, they take their proper place. 

The best men of Christ's day were hopeless for society. 
They looked about and saw profligacy and vice. They 
saw only publicans and harlots ; but when Jesus came, 
He came with hope, — hope in all men, and hope for all 
men, so that even the harlot said, "Is there hope for 
me ? " and the publican rose up from behind the custom- 
box and followed Him, and lived and died for Him. 
The world was saved by hope ! 

Ah, you don't realize what a Saviour you have ! And 
He has hope invested in you. He looks to see you con- 
quer, and you ought not to disappoint Him. If you have 
doubts, look at them from the other side. Hope is the 
better side of doubt. Hope is a mental therapeutics ; it 
is the labouring oar that carries the boat inshore ; it is 
the sail way off on the horizon that betokens the long-ex- 



58 FEAGMEIsTTS THAT EEMAIN 



pected ship ; it is the palm-tree on the edge of the desert, 
promising refreshment to the fainting traveller ; it is the 
little moisture (only a little, perhaps, but some) which 
gives the promise of abating fever. It is hope that car- 
ries you right over death. Do you remember in Bunyan's 
Pilgrim, when Christian was sinking in the river of 
Death? It was Hopeful who put his arm around him, 
and steadied him and said, I feel the bottom, and it is 
good." Hope will hold you up in this life, and through 
death, and into that other life. Hope can accomplish 
anything — it is sufficient for the life that now is, and for 
the life that is to come. 

*'But," you say, I must work and suffer just the 
same." Yes, you must work and suffer just the same, 
and yet not quite the same, and these are the two points 
of my sermon. If to your work you add hope, if to your 
sorrow you add hope, you have realized a Christian's joy. 

You must work. And you cannot pick out your work, 
or set your own wages, or command recognition, or 
choose where you shall work, but your Lord says to you, 
" Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of 
life ! " This world is a workshop of character. It 
doesn't matter what your work is — whether you are a boy 
carrying a pail of water to thirsty workmen in a factory, 
or a girl delivering parcels of work that others have fin- 
ished, or a lawyer in the Supreme Court deciding ques- 
tions of jurisdiction for the country, — all that does not 
matter, for God is building character, and He can judge 
of character just as well by one kind of work as by an- 
other, since His test is fidelity. So work in hope. Be 
faithful in that which is least, and He will take care of 
the future. 

At a time of some public exhibition at Rochester, there 



HOPE 



59 



was a great crowd of people struggling to get through the 
train-gate, but one of the officials stood quietly with his 
back to the gate, and so restrained the crowd. Someone 
laughingly said, You're not a very popular man to- 
night," and he answered, <'Oyes I am; I'm popular 
with the management." It is not your business to be 
famous or popular here. Faithfulness is fame in an- 
other country. The hopes of this world amount to very 
little even if attained ; they are hardly worth the striving 
for : unless hope has eternal roots it soon withers. Don't 
fret under work ; work is a beautiful thing, and your 
Father is interested in your work. He says — whatever 
the task — Do this for Me," and that ought to thrill our 
hearts. 

Let me say this in passing. What is your attitude 
towards servants and employees ? Do you put hope into 
their lives ? You ought to. You know how hard it is 
to live hopeless lives ; but do you give them anything to 
look forward to? Suppose you say to your servant, "If 
you do your work well, I will raise your wages gradually 
until you become too expensive for me, and then — some 
one else will want you." You ought to do something of 
that kind. There is a place in Wales where the workers 
are given food and clothing and lodging in return for 
work. Could anything be more cheerless ! Not a penny 
to save, not a thing that might be a nest-egg, nothing to 
dream of. This is all wrong. 

Perhaps you know the worthlessness of mere earthly 
hope. Then fill your life with deeds of kindness, which 
shall each be a seed of immortal hope. That is the joy 
of preaching — one takes such beautiful risks ; one never 
knows what may be the outcome of a chance word, 
whether or no it may chance in a psychological moment, 



60 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



in the nick of time. "No act falls fruitless, nor can 
any tell how vast its power may be. ' ' So work in hope. 

And suffer, if need be, looking steadily to the outcome. 
The sorrow is here, and the suffering and the discipline 
and the annoyance and the vexation. This is a very 
wearisome world for people who want to escape all annoy- 
ance. Suffer, but add a plus sign with hope. Must I 
plow all through this field ? — But a man said to me this 
week, " You do not understand the joy of plowing — it is 
most fascinating." I told him the only experience ap- 
proaching it that had ever come to me, was digging for 
worms, and I do like the smell of the fresh earth. He 
said that was nothing compared to the pleasure of plow- 
ing ; but, then, he was an enthusiast. Plow your field ! 
Hope says, There is to be a harvest." The bar of iron 
says, ''Must I go into the fire?" "Yes, you must go 
in, but look to the fine and far-off issue when you are to 
come out shining steel." "Must I bear these crosses? " 
" Yes, but there is a crown for you." " Must I submit 
to this discipline? " " Yes, because you are a disciple." 
You remember the hard benches in school ? and how you 
grew restless and rebellious under the w^ork that seemed 
so purposeless to you ? It does not seem so to you now ; 
now you are glad you went through it. So be patient 
under present conditions, looking forward to the time 
when you will understand. You are learning now the ele- 
ments of hope. 

There are times, too, when you have to be hope for 
other people. This is sometimes very discouraging, but 
don't faint under it. Exert your will. Hope ! Hope ! 

Even if the world seems devoid of hope, it isn't. Paul 
was once on a vessel in a terrible storm. All hope was 
dead, except in his heart, and he said, "Be of good 



HOPE 



61 



cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was 
told me." Through every chance and at all times, be of 
good cheer. Brace yourself up with your Christian hope, 
and say, I believe it shall be even as it was told me " j 
and say this, not only for yourself, but for others who 
may not have your faith and courage ; say it not only for 
the present sorrow and discipline, but for that also which 
is only just around the corner. You remember that beau- 
tiful little stanza by Victor Hugo : — 

*' Let us be like a bird, a moment lighted 
Upon a bough that swings ; 
He feels it sway, yet sings on unaffrighted, 
Knowing he hath his wings." 

So do you sing on in all, and in spite of all, knowing 
you have your wings. 

In closing, let me speak of the time when you come to 
die. It need be no time of dread to you. Even the 
Psalmist said, My flesh shall rest in hope," and he was 
still in the twilight. But death to the Christian is all 
joy. Death is the porter who swings the door wide open 
to me, and I go in. /go in — not my body, but a new 
body, a resurrection body, a spiritual body, a body which 
can utter all the thoughts that gasp and struggle for 
utterance here, a body commensurate with my dreams 
and ambitions, — ''Like unto His glorious body"! 
His body and mine shall be alike, and I shall know Him 
when we meet. Sing songs of hope as you approach 
the end. Be seers of visions, and dreamers of dreams 
past all counting, which shall be realized ! Throw away 
fear of death. It is really not our business ; it is His. 
Some day, we don't know when, it will come, — will 
come as an incident in some one of our days. We shall 



62 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



go to sleep, and wake with Him. Meet it, not with a 
twilight hope, but with a noonday hope. Anything less 
is unworthy of a Christian I You recall that beautiful 
stanza of Mrs. Barbauld — 

" Life ! we've been long together 

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear, — 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 
Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time ; 

Say not, « Good-night,' but, in some brighter clime, 
Bid me • Good-morning.' " 

Isn't that hopeful ? Tennyson and Browning, those two 
modern prophets of God, each expresses this glorious hope 
in different ways, and each expresses it in trustful faith. 

" Sunset and evening star, 
And one clear call for me ; 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 
When I put out to sea, 

" " But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 
Too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 
Turns again home. 

" Twilight and evening bell, 
And after that the dark ! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 
When I embark ; 

** For tho from out our bourne of Time and Place 
The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crost the bar." 

You will meet your Pilot. He will not fail you. You 
will go with Him. 



HOPE 



63 



Then Browning's, noblest of all — ragged and rugged ! 
He once said to a friend, Never think of me as dead, 
but just away, and more alive than ever. Never, never 
speak of me as dead." And he is not dead, and our 
loved ones are not dead ; they are more alive than ever, 
— **all live unto Him." 

" At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time, 
"When you set your fancies free, 
Will they pass to where — by death, fools think, imprisoned — 
Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so, 
— Pity me ? 

" O to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken ! 
"What had I on earth to do 
"With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly ? 
Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel 
— Being — who ? 

" One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward. 
Never doubted clouds would break. 
Never feared, though right were worsted, wrong would tri- 
umph. 

Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake ! 

" No, at noonday, in the bustle of man's work-time 
Greet the unseen with a cheer ! 
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, 
< Strive and thrive ! ' cry, < Speed, — fight on, fare ever 
There as here.' " 

Greet your unseen Pilot with a cheer. Let the day of 
your release be your busiest, sunniest day — not lugu- 
brious at all, but brimming over with joy. 

May the God of Hope fill you with all peace, living 
and dying ! 



THANKSGIVING 



" We will not petition Thee ; we will only thank 
Thee. Thou hast given the message : it is 
true. Thou wilt help in the delivery ; Thou 
wilt help in the hearing ; Thou wilt bring the 
result.'^ 



THANKSGIVING 



«« The people therefore that stood by and heard it, said that it 
thundered: others said. An angel spake to him." — John 12 : 29. 

I WILL read a few verses before the text. Now is 
my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, 
save me from this hour ? but for this cause came I 
unto this hour. This will I say ; Father, glorify Thy 
name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I 
have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." 

And this is my text : " The people therefore that stood 
by and heard it, said that it thundered : others said, An 
angel spake to him." 

I remember learning when I was a little boy a stanza — 

" Whether the world is good or bad 
Is only as you make it ; 
It makes you happy or makes you sad 
According as you take it." 

That may be poor poetry, but it is true philosophy. 
Here was the same sound, and some said it thundered, 
others heard angels. Where was the difference? In- 
side or outside ? Surely inside, where all differences are. 
Fichte said, " A man's philosophy is the expression of 
himself." Whether a man is a Stoic or an Epicurean, a 
utilitarian or a necessitarian — whatever he is, depends 
on his own personality, which he projects into all he sees 
or hears. And Kant, a far greater philosopher, has much 
to say about what he called The Thing in Itself " (^Das 
Ding an Sich). But who knows what the thing is in it- 
67 



68 FEAGMEl^TS THAT EEMAIN 



self ? I take up this book. I see it. I handle it. It is 
thick. It is red. It has printing in it. It is intelligible. 
But what do I know of the book — the thing itself ? And,* 
to complicate the problem, if another comes and looks at 
the same book he describes it in different terms, — yes, he 
sees a different thing. 

I want to divide my discourse into two headings in- 
stead of three, — an additional cause of Thanksgiving for 
you, no doubt ! 

I. What you see and hear depends on what you are. 
Why do we see all things so differently ? Because my 
perception of a thing depends on my personality. Ap- 
perception is my perception coloured by the me behind 
it, — yes, coloured not only by what I see, nor by that in- 
fluenced by my ear, but by both, influenced by a some- 
thing behind the eye and the ear. It is as though we 
looked through glasses of different tints and shades. Our 
estimates of persons and things depend on and reveal our 
characters, for we estimate according to what we are. 
What we look on, what we listen to, decides our judg- 
ments : but looking is seeing plus attention ; listening is 
hearing plus attention. We see and hear much that we 
need not look at or listen to. We get from life what we 
impart, impute to it, — we get ourselves back. I once 
went to a concert with a friend and his wife. It was a 
stringed quartette — the very perfection of musical bliss ; 
and after it was over, I drew a long breath of mingled 
delight and regret, and wondered how I was to get down 
to ordinary levels again. I turned to my friend's wife 
and said, " What did you think of that ! " and she an- 
swered, " One long squeak ! " — I came down. 

When the Pharisees saw Matthew sitting at the receipt 
of custom, they drew the robes of their holiness about 



THANKSGIVING 



69 



them, and turned away ; they saw only a publican and a 
sinner. Christ looked at him and saw an evangelist. 

Did you ever see the violet shadow under a gray fence ? 
You smile ; you think it isn't there ; but it is there, — did 
you ever see it ? You have to bend down and look under 
to see it ; you have to /ook for it ; and it is so much 
easier to stand up and look straight before you, and say 
it isn't there ! 

A man once said to Turner, while looking at his pictures. 
They are beautiful, but I never saw such things in 
nature!" and Turner answered, ''Don't you wish you 
could?" Do you wish you could? You ought to be 
able. You are responsible for the power to do so, for it 
can be cultivated. It is as Wordsworth says, 

" The world is too much with us ; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : 
Little we see in Nature that is ours ; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon ! 

This sea that bares her bosom to the moon, 
The winds that will be howling at all hours, 
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, 

For this, for everything, we are out of tune j 

It moves us not." 

And again, this — 

" I heard a thousand blended notes 
While in a grove I sate reclined, 
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 
Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 

" To her fair works did Nature link 

The human soul that through me ran ; 
And much it grieved my heart to think 
What man has made of man. 



70 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



" Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower, 
The periwrinkle trailed its wreaths ; 
And 'tis my faith that every flower 
Enjoys the air it breathes. 

" The birds around me hopped and played ; 
Their thoughts I cannot measure : — 
But the least motion which they made, 
It seemed a thrill of pleasure. 

" The budding twigs spread out their fan 
To catch the breezy air ; 
And I must think, do all I can, 
That there was pleasure there. 

" If this belief from heaven be sent. 
If such be Nature's holy plan, 
Have I not reason to lament 
What man has made of man ? " 

But whatever the surroundings of our lives, we can 
withdraw ourselves from the sordid and see the sublime. 
We can look at and listen to what we will, — at least we 
can learn to. 

II. We need not be slaves to te77iper anient. I will 
repeat a sentence I have used before: — You are not re- 
sponsible for the disposition with which you are born 
into the world, but you are responsible for the disposition 
with which you leave it. Shall I let my disposition dis- 
pose of me, when I have a God-given power by which I 
can dispose of myself ! Suppose we have inherited some 
faults from those we love so much, and whom we are so 
loath to criticise, — need we perpetuate them ? As we 
look back to them and see some traits, some tendencies, 
not quite ideal, and see those same traits and tendencies 
reappearing in ourselves, must we weakly say, It is he- 
redity ; I was born that way, and I can't help it " ? No ! 
Read the seventh chapter of Romans. If you will make 



THANKSGIVING 



71 



so much of heredity, let me recall to your minds a hered- 
ity behind heredity : — In the image of God created He 
them ! " Claim this heredity, and work out your free- 
dom. ''We are the sons of God ; it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be," but '' we are the sons of God." See 
that you make all things after the pattern shown you in 
the mount. What if the sign and line of your life be 
Jovial, Mercurial, Saturnine, Martial, — you can have 
your life-line crossed with the angelic ; you can be born 
again under the Star of Bethlehem ! You can readjust 
your life. 

A young man sees a glass of wine ; — he can't help see- 
ing it, but he can help looking at it. He says, ''There 
are many reasons against taking it ; there are risks and 
dangers involved ; on the whole, since I have only one 
life to live, I think I had better not." God gave him a 
neck and a will. He could not help seeing the tempta- 
tion, but he could turn his head, and not look upon it. 

Suppose a fly, in the habit of feeding upon carrion, 
should be attracted by the flight of a bee. He watches 
and watches the bee until he becomes enamored of it. 
He follows it. He studies its habits. He notes its food. 
He sees the beauty of its form. He sees how busy it is. 
He is watching it now ! It flies back past him. He 
catches a whiff, as it passes, of — something — what is it ? It 
is sweet. — It is delicious. — N-no, it is XiOtexactly like car- 
rion. Now he longs to be like the bee. He eats what it 
eats. He imitates its habits. He tries to live its life. And 
in time, the scientists say, — I do not know ; I am not acute 
or astute enough — but the scientists say that the fly will 
become a bee, and live on honey and wax. Honey and 
wax — sweetness and light ! — The light of a candle? 

But whether true or not in the scientific world, it is 



72 



FEAGMEKTS THAT BEMAIK 



true in the moral world :— you become like your ideaL 
Look for the angels, and you see them ; listen for their 
voices, and you hear them. Day by day, beholding, you 
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, and 
sweetness and light become the characteristics of your 
new life, received from that far-off heredity. It is sim- 
ply a matter of persevering choice. On this side, things 
that make for righteousness ; on that side, things that 
make for evil. On this side, kindliness of thought and 
speech ; on that side, gossip, scandal, ill-natured remarks. 
On this side, all that is ideal ; on that side, all that has a 
downward tendency. On this side, beauty and loveli- 
ness ; on that side, ugliness and repulsion. On this side, 
cheerfulness ; on that side, grumbling. On this side, 
sweetness and light ; on that side, carrion ! Which will 
you choose ? 

I had only two headings to my sermon, but I have 
three conclusions. 

First. Train yourself to see and hear the good, the 
angelic, and not the evil, the thunderous. I have met 
the Knight of the Gloomy Countenance and the Prince 
of the Leaden Heart. I have heard them talk. I know 
their views. I know this world is a vale of tears. There 
are sickness and gloom and death and disappointments 
and broken hopes, and life is unsatisfactory, and nothing 
is worth while. O I know it all ! But change your 
attitude towards it, and // changes. And if you can'tstt 
things in a cheerful light, at least be still about them. 
Cultivate the best part of speech — silence ! It takes great 
self-command to do this. It means immense self-control. 
It involves sturdy and persistent self-repression. But it 
accomplishes much. If you did not sleep well, you need 
not mention it in the morning. If your breakfast does 



THANKSGIVING 



73 



not suit you, you are under no moral compulsion to find 
fault with it. If you feel wretched and disagreeable, 
there is no law of obligation that you exploit the fact. 
You are at liberty to keep your pains and aches to your- 
self; no one will feel defrauded. 

Carlyle once heard of a man who grumbled, and said, 
*< I wish I had him by the legs, with a stone wall near ! " 
That was the estimate by the Prince of Grumblers of one 
who grumbled. 

The old lady, who looked in her barrel of apples every 
day for one rotten apple, found that the laws of Nature 
satisfied her desires and supplied the rotten apple daily : 
she never got one good one out of the whole barrel. 

Sir Walter Scott once had a friend staying with him, 
and in the morning the guest said, Did you hear that 
pestiferous cur in the night ? " and Sir Walter answered, 
" Yes, poor dog, he seemed to have troubles of his own ! " 
Isn't that just delicious ? What a comfort to live with 
such a man ! 

My second conclusion is, — I plead for a molecular 
change. To-day you may not be able to hear anything 
but thunder ; yet by next Thanksgiving day that can be 
changed. There are some people in this world who can- 
not hear anything but angelic voices — it is a beautiful 
necessity ; but by next Thanksgiving they may be able to 
see the angels, — they may even get themselves confused 
with them. This will not come all at once ; it will not 
come suddenly. My arm is denuded of tiny, microscopic 
particles with every movement I make, and is built up 
again in the same way, molecule by molecule. It is 
built up by use, and withers without it. So this new 
power for which I plead — you can form it within yourself, 
but only by steady training. Possibly the advance will 



74 



FEAGMElsTTS THAT EEMAIK 



be slow, but it will tell in a year, and you will be thank- 
ful, and — so will your friends. 

My third conclusion is — Let the soul of sweetness and 
light and thanksgiving express itself in your outward life. 
If you try to, you will see that violet shadow under the 
gray fence ; you will hear angel voices. If your life 
seems gloomy and hard and sordid and without sources 
of thankfulness, try this plan : — do one kind act every 
day. A friend once said to me : I would not mention 
it, only we are talking between ourselves. — For years I 
have made it a rule to do at least one kind act every day, 
and one night, no longer ago than last week, I got into 
bed, and suddenly remembered that I had done no con- 
sciously kind act that day ; so I got up, made a light, 

wrote a letter to a woman in trouble, and enclosed a 

* 

check." Tell me that man would not hear angel voices ! 
Yes, and see angels, too ! Tell me that he would not 
appreciate a kindness done to him ! that he would fail to 
recognize God's goodness to him ! If you can't recog- 
nize it in your life, I am sorry for you, but try my friend's 
plan. Don't gossip ; be tender ; cultivate one blind eye 
for the faults of your friends, and one deaf ear for social 
purposes. Recognize that your servants will get into a 
temper sometimes — you do ; — that they will now and 
then have the blues ; that occasionally they will have 
quiet streaks — and don't feel always called on to com- 
ment on it — you wouldn't with your friends. 

The men of that day might have said to their more 
fortunate companions, Did you really hear an angel 
speak? I wish I had ! " And the others might have re- 
plied, Listen, and you will." 

Now, do you listen for the angels, and the atmosphere 
of your life will not remain thunderous ! 



THERE GO THE SHIPS 



^^Hdp us to conquer the sins Thou hast forgiven; 
Thou knowest how we suffer while we are re- 
sisting. May we feel towards sin^ whether in 
ourselves or others y an utter hatred and con- 
tempt, but towards the sinner may we feel the 
utmost kindness. ' ' 



THERE GO THE SHIPS 

«* So He bringeth them unto their desired haven.^^ — Ps. 107 : 30. 

OUR subject is a ship. Did you ever think how 
significant of human life a ship is ? Did you 
ever realize how at some stage of development 
in a boy's life he has a mania for making boats ? I can 
feel now on my thumb a cicatrix where I cut myself 
years ago in my efforts to make a boat. I well remember 
the place where I worked. It was under the front steps 
of the house, and I had to crawl in, but once I was in, I 
was undisturbed in my work. 

How productive of the highest qualities a ship has al- 
ways been ! Think of the splendid courage of Columbus 
and the Cabots and Magellan, of Drake and Frobisher, 
— men who risked their lives to advance the knowledge 
of the world. And how did they risk it ? Not as we do 
when we cross the ocean in powerful steamers, but they 
sailed out on unknown seas, in their frail boats, little bet- 
ter than cockle-shells. Unknown, inconceivable dan- 
gers were before them, yet they never flinched as they 
faced the uncharted seas. And what have they given to 
humanity? A new world, with its limitless stores of 
power and knowledge ! Think now of the splendid day- 
boats on the Hudson — each of them a palace — and then 
think back to Robert Fulton and the Claremont. How 
trustingly we board the vessels of to-day, and how almost 
invariably they reach their desired haven ! 

As I look over this audience, I think how in a few 
passing minutes you will all scatter, and I can say, 

77 



78 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



There go the ships ! There go the ships I " — for each 
one of you is a commissioned craft — a commissioned 
craft, if you did but know it, with an order of saiUng, 
and a definite port, and a catalogued cargo. How are 
you saiUng ? Whither are you tending ? What will be- 
come of your cargo ? 

I want to call your attention to three points about a 
ship that figure our human life. 

I. Who owns the ship ? " Why," you say, do." 
No, you don't; you are the captain, but does the captain 
own the ship ? Not at all. He is under orders. He 
only sails the ship, and sails it in the interests of the ship- 
owner. Your bodies are your boats, and you are not 
your own, but are bought with a price. You belong to 
God, wherefore glorify God in your body and your 
spirit, which are God's. This body is not mine. From 
the elements of earth and air and water, it was made by 
God and entrusted to me, to be used for His sake, and 
to return to Him the best possible results. It is a great 
honour He has given me, but let me not forget the honour 
and say, "Now it is mine." This hand is not mine. 
It is very famiHar to me ; I know it well ; I use it often ; 
it does me good service ; but it is not mine. It is His ; 
I am all His, and to Him I must give account. " Oh," 
you say, **if I only had a difi"erent body!" But He 
wants you to sail the ship He has given you, and for that 
only will He hold you responsible, and for that only can 
you hear, " Well done 1 " when you land in the desired 
haven. "But, ah, if it were only stronger, better ad- 
justed, more graceful!" That has nothing to do with 
it. It doesn't matter in the least whether you are as 
graceful as a full-rigged yacht or as ugly as a Dutch 
lugger. Your boat, whatever it is, is your opportunity, 



THEEE GO THE SHIPS 



79 



— yours only, and your only opportunity. When we 
grow restless and refuse to sail our boat because we don't 
like its plan and style, we check our development. This 
willfulness loses us many of the richest of life's lessons. 

Not only must we sail our boat, but we must care for 
it. Perhaps some day, wandering about the deck, I 
start to cut my name in the woodwork or to write with 
my ring on the glass. No, I must not ; the boat is not 
mine, and I must not mar it in any way. The boat, 
your body, is a sacred trust. Do not overwork it, but 
also, do not underwork it. Put it to legitimate exertions. 
Exact from it what it is able to perform, for this you owe 
to the ship-owner. Do not neglect it ; do not abuse it ; 
do not forget its dignity; remember its marvelous 
mechanism and its fitness for the work ii has to do, and 
bear in mind that it is not to be exploited for your own 
convenience. It is part of your stewardship. For a 
moment, dissociate your spirit from your body. Rise up 
to the level from which God sees, and look down on 
your body. Consider what you have done with it, what 
you have accomplished by its aid, what you are planning 
as to its future activities, and tell yourself honestly 
whether you are faithfully fulfilling your commission to 
keep it pure and wholesome, and trim and shipshape. 

II. Who is to manage my ship? '<Why, I am." 
Yes 1 am. O the glory of i-^^-possession, — to feel the 
power of my own will over my body ! To feel all the 
force and energy of this sensuous nature, and to know 
that I am stronger than it ! To feel all the allurements 
of sense and taste, and never to let them dominate ! To 
know that through all storms and tempests and whirl- 
winds there need be no wreck ! There will be losses and 
breakages and bad management sometimes, but always 



80 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



my power, my self, is regnant ! O the joy of self- 
possession ! — to possess your self. 

Those are not the best days on which all goes well 
with us, when wind and tide are in our favour, and the 
sky is glowing with colour, and the winds are zephyrs, 
and the waves are calm. But, ah, the days when we 
battle with the tempest, and hear the straining cordage 
and the creaking planks, yet keep our hands on the wheel 
and weather the storm, those are the best days, — the 
days that test and stablish our manhood, that show the 
glory of the trust that was put into our hands when He 
formed us men. 

We often thought our school-days were hard, and the 
lessons beyond our powers and to no purpose anyway ; 
but do we think so now as we look back and see what 
was accomplished by them ? Sir Algernon West said, in 
speaking of Eton, " I look back to dear old Eton and 
think of the life there, the absolute order, the regular 
hours, the six-o'clock breakfast, the bare floor, the many 
restrictions, the few rewards. And I go back there now 
and see the luxury — the upholstery, the cushioned 
benches, the easy life — and wonder whether it is all im- 
provement. The old way was hard, but it made men 
hardy \ it brought out the thews and sinews of our man- 
hood." 

I tell you, we pamper our bodies too much ; we take 
too much comfort. We sit in too easy chairs when we 
are reading. The rose-mesh of the flesh is very pleasant, 
but it is not invigorating. Think of the splendid regimen 
of the apostle Paul : "I keep my body under, and 
bring it into subjection," — I hold it as a conquered 
steed, as a hound in the leash. It is hard ? Yes, but it 
makes you hardy by the very hardness of your struggle ! 



THEEE GO THE SHIPS 



81 



The Civil War did more than cement the Union, or, 
rather, it did that in a way for which I thank God. It 
brought the South to see the courage, the system, the 
power of the North, and the North to recognize the brave 
self-devotion of the South. I greatly admire " Stone- 
wall " Jackson; he was a fine type of manhood. He 
would not drink coffee because it was not a necessity but 
a self-indulgence, a luxury ; and he was determined to 
reduce his life to the simplest principles, — he would not 
have his life depend on things. He would not wear an 
overcoat in winter. He declared that the heart within 
him should keep him warm. That may be very foolish 
physiologically, but it is splendid morally ! I love the 
reign of principle. I love to see a man — I am proud of 
myself when I can do it — live by the unknown, the in- 
visible, the unseen. O, I glory in that power of hold- 
ing myself superior to the here and the now, and of look- 
ing beyond to the unseen and the eternal ! 

Once, while travelling, I was very much struck by a 
sentence in a book I was reading. I will not tell you its 
name, for it was a foolish book. It was about an artist 
who persisted in doing his work on a high plane, , and 
would in no wise let it down because of financial need or 
to secure pleasure; and when his friends jeered at him he 
said : But how do I know, if I yield, but that what I 
gain in pleasure I may lose in delicacy of work ; that 
what I secure of enjoyment, I may lose from the sacred- 
ness of work ? " O the shame and weakness of self- 
indulgence, — how all that is best in us recoils from it ! 
O the glory and joy of self-control, — how it thrills us 
with a sense of victory ! No self-indulgent man can live 
a life of power. He cannot do it. It cannot be done. 

Let us return to the figure of a ship. You are alojie 



82 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



the pilot-house. No one except you has a right to enter 
there, but many others are clamouring to come in. Don't 
let them come ! Lock your door ! Bolt it ! Keep your 
eye on the compass and your hands on the wheel ! Steer 
it yourself, and steer it according to your chart, if you 
would reach your desired haven. But up the stairway 
leading to that pilot-house come stealthily creeping the 
rascal senses, and the debasing lusts and the clamorous 
passions. And they knock and implore and cajole you 
to let them in. You refuse to open the door ; you say, 
" I must keep my attention on the chart." They answer 
coaxingly, If you knew the deliciousness of sailing when 
we steer I " But you say, It could never equal the joy 
of reaching the haven towards which I steer." Let us 
in ! Let us in ! Let us get our hands on the wheel — 
just a little while, and we will show you what pleasure 
is." — " Ah, but there is more than one kind of pleasure, 
and I prefer mine. You shall not come in." — **If you 
will let us in, we will steer with you. Your hand, too, 
shall be on the wheel ; we will sail just where you will, 
and you shall know no restraint. Do let us come in ! " — 

But I love the restraint that is power. I want to sail 
this way. I long for the expected end of this voyage. 
You shall not come in ! " — Do not let them, as you value 
your life ! They want but to dispossess and displace you. 
As surely as you permit their spectral hands to touch the 
wheel, you are on the rocks and near to shipwreck. Your 
pilot-house is your castle, your temple, your refuge, where 
only the owner of the ship dare come in beside you. 
Discipline yourself. Keep the end of the voyage before 
you. Keep your body under, your spirit regnant. Shut 
the door on the willful, imperious demands of the flesh.. 

Say, have they come in ? Have they now their hands 



THEEE GO THE SHIPS 



83 



on the wheel ? Do they, as yet, let you keep one hand 
on, and they control only in part ? Now for your life- 
and-death struggle ! Gather your forces and contend f 
Drive them off ! Send them skulking down the stairs ! 
You can do it ! 

You had to let go ? No, never ! And you can put 
your hands back on the wheel even if you have let go. 

A man came to me this past week — only a day or two 
ago, and catching my hands in a viselike grip, he said : 
"See ! See ! " — and I saw; I saw the triumph of the 
flesh. He said, " I cannot conquer " ; but I said to 
him then, and I say to him now, if he is here this after- 
noon, '<Yes, dear, you can, you can. God's Spirit is 
your helper, and you can do all things with Him. Only 
gather your forces and contend ! " 

III. In the third place, I would remark that we do 
not harness a horse just to see how he looks in harness. 
We do not send a current of electricity vibrating through 
the wires just for the pleasure of charging wire. We do 
not lead water through channels and raceways just to 
hear it gurgle. 

And so God does not give you a cargo just as ballast 
for your ship. He has a destination for it. He expects 
you to sail from a port of fullness to a port of emptiness. 
You are ships in commission. He wants you to take the 
cargo where it is needed. His divine exports are to be 
used as human imports. How many of you have steered 
to a port of emptiness to-day ? — not to ports of fullness ; 
that is useless ; there you are not needed — but to how 
many ports of emptiness have you sailed? — "Well, I 
wrote a letter to a friend." — Is her life an empty, neg- 
lected life ? If not, that was a port of fullness. — " I called 
on one of my set." — That was sailing from a port of full- 



84 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



ness to a port of fullness. But what ports of emptiness 
have you supplied with your precious cargo ? Have you 
followed the leadership of Him who came not to be min- 
istered unto, but to minister ? 
I want to paint two pictures : — 

Here is a lovely ship that is launched amid many 
salvos and cheers. It is very pretty, and starts out with 
colours flying. The paint is fresh and white ; the deck 
is polished ; the uniforms are new and fine ; the sails are 
fully spread. The engine is perfect. You say to the 
captain, You have a fine ship; where are you going?'* 
*'0 I don't know; I am just going to sail." ''Yes, 
but what course will you take? " "Well, most any; I 
just enjoy navigation." "But to what port are you 
bound?" "None in particular; I take great pleasure 
in travelling." 

So he sails away — this way — that way — turning the 
ship where he will — seeking pleasant seas and lovely isles, 
and all is beautiful. But even such a ship gives out in 
time. The paint is not quite so fresh ; uniforms are a 
trifle worn ; the engine wheezes a little ; a little leakage 
here and there ; nothing much, but the ship is not quite 
what it once was. Then comes a storm, and the inex- 
perienced, fair-weather pilot can do nothing. She strikes 
the rocks and goes to pieces ; and some on broken por- 
tions of the vessel, and the captain, on a board, get to 
land. They are saved, so as by water. The captain 
missed the haven ; and what will he do when the owner 
asks for his papers and chart and compass ? How will 
he account for his cargo ? 

Again : I see a ship start out. It, too, starts off well, 
and starts with a definite purpose. It meets a storm al- 
most at once, but though there are rent cordage and torn 



THEEE GO THE SHIPS 



85 



sails and some breakage, there is no wreck. There was 
no fear of the storm, — rather, a sort of suppressed joy, 
and now, — the joy of victory ! But it must put back for 
repairs. It starts again, and steering steadily towards 
the port, all goes well. This vessel, too, grows old. 
There are some leakages and a general appearance of 
wear and tear. Will it be able to make the port ? It 
never swerves from its course. It is beginning to run 
slowly. What is that just ahead ? — Land ! The ship 
approaches. There are palm -groves. Nearer and nearer 
the pilot steers, — not upon the rocks but through the 
channel. Who are those waving their hands to him ? 
They are those who made this voyage successfully before 
him ! And now they welcome him, and straightway he 
is at the harbour whither he desired to be ! 
So He bringeth them unto their desired haven. 



PRAYER 



V 



" We pray to Thee from whom every good 
prayer cometh. Accept our prayers and pre- 
sent them to our Father. As a little child will 
gather a bouquet of wild flowers ^ and the elder 
brother will pick out what is harmful or poison- 
ous y leaving only the beautiful for the mother to 
receive^ so wilt Thou sort and arrange our 
prayers y that they may be acceptable to Him 
whom we would served 



PRAYER 



" And prayings the heaven was opened^ — Luke 3 : 21. 



I 



N one of his superb flights of thought, in a burst of 
noble enthusiasm, Tennyson says prayer is 

" A breath that fleets beyond this world 
And touches Him who made it." 



Is this an iron world ? Is it hardness and inflexibility 
and remorseless law ? Is there no tenderness and love 
and responsiveness ? Is it, indeed, an iron world ? Yes, 
so men think, some men, some kinds of men. But they 
are wrong, and we who believe in God as our Father, 
who know and respond to His love, who know Him as 
God the Father Almighty, are right. One of the medi- 
aeval mystics said, Prayer is the flight of a lonely man 
to the only God." And that other outburst of Tenny- 
son, — 

" Pray for my soul. 
More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. Therefore let thy voice 
Rise like a fountain for me, night and day. 
For what are men better than sheep or goats, 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
Both for themselves and those who call them friend ? 
For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 



There it is again — " chains " ! Is it chains on every 
89 



90 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



side ? Yes, there are restrictions, limitations ; but the 
chains are golden chains. The world is full of iron, full 
of law, but it is loving, beneficent, personal law. There 
are only two theories of the universe — God, and No God. 
You may mix and mingle these as you will ; you may 
name them as you choose, but it is Father or Fate, 
Call Fate by whatever name you will, — force, law, 
chance, — it is still Fate, and the only alternative to 
Father. Matching theory with theory, I hold up my 
right hand and say, Our Father," and I say it on the 
best spiritual authority in the universe, — the experience 
of men who have put their trust in it. Prove it ? I 
don't attempt to. It does not come within the region of 
physical proof ; but, theory for theory, I still hold up my 
right hand and say, I believe in God, the Father Al- 
mighty." Magnify all the vast processes of nature, dwell 
on the energy stored in the earth, prove all the great nat- 
ural developments and adaptations of organisms, carry it 
all as far as you can and will, and I welcome it ; I re- 
joice in it, for every bit of power you can prove only 
magnifies the Almighty Father whom I trust. I greet 
them all ; they are but broken lights of the Father of 
Lights. This is my faith. I do not now appeal to the 
Bible nor to moral philosophy, but theory for theory 
again, I claim that you have nothing better than this : — 
''He is my Father: He loves me." To my mind, this 
touches the highest point. If you know anything better, 
anything that has an ultimately higher reach, then tell it 
to me. I need it. I want to know it. I want to preach 
it. But think what my theory implies — a Father with all 
His oversight and care and wisdom and tenderness ; the 
son looking up to Him with filial love ; the child trust- 
ing Him ! 



P E A Y E R 



91 



''O," say the non-Christian philosophers, pray by 
all means. Prayer is a great upHfting power. It is 
splendid in its reactionary elfects. Its reflexive power is 
very elevating. In its subjective results there is nothing 
so stimulating to all that is noble in man." I believe 
that, too. I want to make a one week's prophecy. For 
this next week, offer not one syllable of prayer ; but go 
alone by yourself, and with folded arms or interlaced 
fingers, with no interruption and in perfect quietness, just 
think. Think of something noble, — a beautiful picture, 
an entrancing sunset, the roar of the tumbling surf on the 
beach, — anything grand. It is mighty hard work to 
abstract yourself from all else and just think j but do it, 
and — this is my prophecy — you will be greatly uplifted. 
Largeness is good for littleness. In the same manner 
think of God, — of His greatness. His infinity, His eter- 
nity. It is inspiring. But, man, you tell me prayer is 
nothing more than that I Do you mean that men will do 
that for a lifetime if there is no response ? that the race 
has been doing that for millenniums, because of the fine 
subjective and reactionary effect on themselves ! Do I 
go on writing with a dry fountain-pen because I especially 
enjoy that particular form of finger exercise ? Do I keep 
working the handle of a dry pump because the muscular 
exercise involved is so strengthening? Do you spread 
your table, Mistress Hubbard, if the cupboard is empty ? 
If you do it for a day or two, your friends try to lead you 
away, and if you resist, saying, I like to see the dishes," 
they fear for your mind, and shake their heads and say. 
Too bad : too bad ! " The farmer ploughs. There is 
no time when I admire the farmer more, or wish less to 
be a farmer, than when he ploughs. But does he plough 
as a pastime, as having fine reactionary effect on his mus- 



92 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



cles ; or does he plough in expectation of a harvest ? 
Would he plough if he knew there would be no waving 
wheat, no tasselled corn ? I will stretch a point, and al- 
low that a man might pray for a day or two just for the 
sake of the mental excitement resulting to him, but if he 
kept it up any longer for that reason, I should doubt the 
balance of his mind. Think of the telephone. There is 
something at the other end. Does a man go and talk 
into an empty hole in a wall ? 

Men make a great mistake when they talk of law as an 
objection to prayer, because they fail to consider that 
prayer is one of God's laws and that He, as God the 
Father Almighty, can manipulate His laws to ends of 
His own choosing. Hartley Coleridge said that prayer 
is the highest form of human energy." At one time he 
spoke of prayer as the impossible, the inconceivable ; but 
his later and riper judgment was that it was the highest 
form of human energy. 

Your boy brings you a plaything which he has broken, 
and asks you to mend it. But you must not, for we are 
in a world of law, and he has broken law and must abide 
by it. You have no right to touch it. You say, Non- 
sense 1 I know a higher law. I see how the law can be 
adjusted and the plaything mended." And shall not the 
Almighty be able to readjust the laws we have broken 
when we ask Him ? 

You are in business with your father. You come to a 
difficulty which you are not able to untangle. You 
think over it. You wrestle with it. You hate to give it 
up, but at last you must, you are not equal to the case ; 
and then he brings to bear on it his wider experience, his 
subtler perception, and all is readjusted. He has not 
broken law — all he has done has been in obedience to a 



P E A Y E E 



93 



higher law, and is lawful, loving, beautiful ; there has 
been an interchange of filial confidence on your part and 
paternal love and wisdom on his. 

Of course, if you can prove to me that the world moves 
on in a hopeless lockstep, no change, no possibility of 
loving control by the Maker, then I move that prayer be 
abolished. But if I can originate ; if I can be a poet, a 
maker, a dreamer, a creator ; if I know how to take ad- 
vantage of the higher law, shall I deny to God the poetic 
power, the power to make, to dream, to create, to use His 
higher laws in controlling the lower ? 

Water flows down-hill according to natural law. Then 
why should you fly in the face of law and invent the 
pump ? You have no right to. You have no right even 
to carry water up-hill in a pail, for water is not meant to 
go up-hill. You build a reservoir on a high hill, because 
you see that water rises to its own level. You say that is 
hydrostatic equilibrium. All right, but it looks to me 
like violation of law. *'Yes," you say, but / come 
in, and use the higher law ; and when I want to, I use 
the lower law, and turn on my water, and make it flow 
down again, /can control law." And so, though law 
seems most capricious, it never is capricious; I may 
handle it as I will if I remember it is law. But I must 
never get playful with law. If I do, I have a broken 
leg, or a broken back, or a dislocated shoulder, or a 
flood, or a fire. But law, lawfully used, both higher and 
lower law, always answers to my knowledge and demand. 
" Here I am : I obey," it says. 

You ask me for a drink of water, — why should you ? 
That is prayer. What difference will it make? The 
law of high levels is still in force, but then, the law also 
is in force that by turning the spigot, I create a vacuum, 



94 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



and the pressure of the atmosphere — fifteen pounds to 
the square inch, — forces the water up, and so the water 
flows. Therefore, it is a reasonable thing for you to ask 
me for a drink, and a courteous thing for me to give it. 
But we have been using the great laws governing water- 
levels for our own convenience, v Then how strange that 
we should deny the same power to the Great Law-Maker ! 
He surely can superimpose what higher laws He will. 
Now, He manipulates all laws to one end, — the formation 
of character. To this end He sent Christ ; to this end 
He permitted Calvary ; to this end all law in the universe 
is set in motion. He has predestined that you be con- 
formed to the image of His Son. Therefore, whatsoever 
you ask in His Son's name, for this purpose, He can and 
He will grant. Man is not intelligent enough to know 
how God does this, but knowing how far he can himself 
control law, it seems strange that God's power to do so 
should be inconceivable to him. 

Livingstone once said, do not understand how men 
can admit that God made the world, and set it spinning, 
and then claim that He stands powerless before His own 
creation." The house is afire! Well, let it burn. It 
is the nature of fire to burn, and law must not be tam- 
pered with. ''But," you object, "it is the nature of 
water to put fire out, and that is the law I mean to use ! ' ' 
And shall God be bound by the lower law ! If I am to 
be rolled and stood about like a stick or a stone, let me 
surrender myself to the inevitable. If I have no volition, 
no control over a higher law, let me not brace and bal- 
ance myself, and stand up like a man, but let me be the 
sport and plaything of every chance wind that blows 
against me; let me stumble over every chance obstacle 
that lies across my path. 



P E A Y E E 



96 



No naturalist ought ever to object to prayer. The 
young raven cries, the mother bestirs herself and over- 
comes her sloth, and self-indulgence, and seeks food for 
the little one in response to the cry that was a prayer. 
The lamb bleats, and in answer to the need, the cry, the 
prayer, not only does the mother suckle the little one, 
but the milk flows into the udders — ^just in response to a 
cry ! Shall this be in nature, and not in nature's God ? 
It is strange to deny power to God, — to say that He who 
made the eye cannot see our need, that He who formed 
the ear cannot hear when we call, that He who made 
the heart will not understand its needs and longings, that 
He should have prepared throughout nature an appropri- 
ate answer to every cry of the lower creation, but to the 
human cry, As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, 
so panteth my soul after Thee, O God," He has no 
answer ! It cannot be ! It is not ! When I yearn to 
grow pure and holy, can He not answer me ? When I 
ask Him to help me conquer my mean and low habits, 
has He no answering grace for me ? When I struggle to 
control my temper, will He not respond to that struggle ? 
We do not think this ; we know better ; but — we don't 
pray. 

What do you do with Christ's life of prayer? He 
prayed continually. He learned to pray at His mother's 
knee. He prayed as a boy, when He went up to the 
Temple ; in His shop at Nazareth ; at His baptism ; in 
His temptation He fortified Himself with prayer; be- 
fore He called His disciples He spent the whole night in 
prayer ; after that wonderful Sabbath in Capernaum He 
departed into a solitary place and there prayed ; the 
Transfiguration came as the result of prayer ; He raised 
Lazarus after prayer. Did you ever notice the signifi- 



96 



FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



cant break between the seventh and eighth chapters of 
John? The last verse of the seventh chapter is, ''And 
every man went into his own house ' ' ; and the first verse 
of the eighth chapter is, "Jesus went unto the Mount of 
OHves ' ' : each to his own place, — the crowd went to 
their homes, and Jesus went to commune with His 
Father. Was it petition ? Yes, sometimes ; but oftener, 
just communion, I think. Gethsemane was petition ; the 
prayer in the Upper Room was petition and intercession. 
— (How do the advocates of the purely reflexive effects 
of prayer, account for prayers of intercession ?) — But most 
of Christ's praying seems to have been communion. 

A little boy comes in quietly and sits down by his 
father who is working, and who only looks up and smiles, 
and says, Did you want anything? " and the little boy 
answers quietly, **No, I just wanted to be with you." 
That is what prayer should be to us, — ^just being with 
our Father, talking to Him, telling Him all about our- 
selves, asking advice, speaking freely about all things. 
Keep your windows open towards Jerusalem ; talk much 
with God ; tell Him you want to be receptive. Have 
you read the Confessions of St. Augustine? They 
are merely long monologues with God. He tells all 
about his inner and outer life in an unbroken conversa- 
tion with his Father. He even mentions a pain in the 
face, — and it is all addressed to God. 

The prayer-life is a beautiful life. We do not train 
ourselves for it as we should. We do not enter into our 
closets and shut the door and pray to our Father in 
secret. In the busy crowd, we do not swiftly close the 
doors on the outside world, and so keep the communion 
with Him unbroken. We do not realize that most 
beautiful of all spiritual conditions, — ''Still, still with 



P E A Y E E 



97 



Thee." If we did, we would show it in our calmness, 
our unruffled serenity, our patience, our sweetness, our 
untroubled attitude towards life. We do not stay on 
the mountain-top long enough to keep the face shining. 

You know the spectrum is a brilliant band of most 
beautifully coloured light, but you do not know what is 
at the end of the spectrum, beyond the light. What is 
the power of prayer? Experiment, and you will know. 
That is the way in which we have learned what power 
there is in that dark end of the spectrum beyond where 
the light reaches. There is one ray that is extremely 
actinic, very powerful in all photographic effects. We 
have not exhausted the power of light. There is the 
X-ray. We used to classify things as opaque, trans- 
lucent — dimly seen through, as a thin shell, a delicate 
china cup — and transparent. But with the X-ray, such 
distinctions vanish and all becomes transparent. And 
there is now the S-ray and the Victor-ray, and we do not 
know where it will stop. 

So is prayer. It reveals — though it takes courage to 
be alone with God. But if you will pray, He will reveal 
Himself to you, in you, through you, and you will inevi- 
tably reveal where you have been, for you will live the 
Father-life among the brothers. 

" Lord, what a change within us one short hour 
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make ! 
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, 

What parched grounds revive as with a shower ! 

We kneel, and all around us seems to lower ; 
We rise, and all, the distant and the near, 
Stands forth a sunny outline, brave and clear. 

We kneel, how weak ! We rise, how full of power ! 
Why, wherefore, should we do ourselves this wrong. 
Or others, that we are not always strong ; 



FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



That we are ever overborne with care ; 

That we should ever weak or heartless be, 
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, 

And joy and strength and courage are with Thee 1 " 



AFFLICTION 
LOFa 



" Help us to praise Thee, Thou who inhahitest 
the praises of Israel. If we are walking in 
darkness and mystery, and yet the path of obe- 
dience lies that way, may we tread it bravely 
and trustfully. 



AFFLICTION 



" It is good for me that I have been affiicted^ — Ps. I19 : 71. 

DAVID did not say, " It is good for me that I am 
being afflicted " ; that was too much to expect 
of him. God does not demand the impossi- 
ble ; He is very tender with us. But David did what 
we can all do, — as he looked back, he said, " Yes, I 
see now that it was good to be afflicted." At the time 
it did not seem so to him ; then he said, " I am consumed 
by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath am I troubled"; 
now he knew it was not anger and wrath, but the best 
and gentlest training the Lord could send him, and yet 
make of him all He meant him to be. 

We go to school and submit to rules that we may learn 
to be better, and we know, as we look back, that all the 
irksome discipline against which we rebelled was good 
and wholesome. O but," you say, " I am out of school 
now." Are you? Then I pity you. I think the love- 
liest conception of life is that which regards it as a school, 
where rules must be obeyed and lessons learned and self- 
control acquired, — all to some gracious purpose that we 
shall some time understand and glory in. I love to think 
that I am a disciple, that I am undergoing discipling — 
and I just drop that final g and submit to discipline. 
Some time you will learn to say that you are glad of the 
discipline. The best things in life are always hardest to 
attain. If life goes easy with you, you are sure to be a 
man of soft fibre. Brace up to your work. Be brave and 
'faithful even if you can't like it. No playing truant ! 

101 



102 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



You are still in school, still on your hard bench ; clench 
your hands tight and hold on. Kiss the rod even when 
it comes down on smarting shoulders. Shake hands with 
the inevitable, — //^^/ must be God's appointment. Make 
friends with your teachers and lessons. The unploughed 
field produces no wheat. No coal or iron comes from the 
undug mines. So from the untrained nature no nobility 
is developed. If the field and the mine should say, 
" Leave us alone ; we do not want to be disturbed or in- 
terfered with," — then they might as well not exist. The 
steps up Parnassus are hard to climb, but — the gladness 
of reaching the heights ! O if you only knew what 
God was working out for you, you would even choose 
His way to the fine and far-off issue of His plan ! 

Once, at a memorial service of the Civil War, a gen- 
eral, who was addressing the meeting, suddenly lifted his 
wooden crutch and said, " I won that atChancellorsville ! " 
I won it ! I WON it ! I glory in it ! " No repining or re- 
gret there ! It is good for me that I have been afflicted ! 

Dr. Gunsaulus, in speaking before a Christian En- 
deavour Convention, opened his remarks by saying, I 
thank God that I have been sick for two years ! " That 
is the victory of faith. Troubles come ; friendships are 
breaking ; efforts for others are not appreciated ; health 
is giving away — but God does it, and it must be right. 
/ don't know why, but He does. O look up, tired 
heart ; believe in " the far-off interest of tears " ! 

Nations are born out of trouble. They grow stronger 
by what they endure. Spain is stronger because of our 
war with her, and she knows it. She herself recog- 
nizes that it was good for her to have the rotting tips of 
her American possessions cut off, that her strength might 
be given to growth at home. Her navy was our terror, 



AFFLICTION 



103 



and we trembled as our white ships with their unsmoked 
funnels went out to meet her. But they came home vic- 
torious ; and out of that pain and terror we have the 
gladness of having learned that our manhood is still in 
us ; our strength as a nation has not departed through 
shop-keeping. The sanitary conditions of Cuba were 
such that we shrunk in fear, yet we had to face them ; 
and already out of that affliction is coming health for its 
people and ours. From that island were carried over to 
New Orleans the germs of our national plague — yellow 
fever. But with the bettering of conditions there, come 
better sanitary conditions in our own land, and they will 
grow better yet. In the military camps life is much safer. 
There are two or three deaths now where there were hun- 
dreds under Spanish rule. Our own nation was born in 
pain. We came here from the Romish and Jewish perse- 
cutions of the Continent. Out of the sufferings of our 
fathers our own church had its birth. The Jews them- 
selves developed out of the bondage of Egypt, and the 
hardships of the desert. 

Much can be learned from an ocean liner. On the 
White Star Line, the captain may not attend the concert 
which is always given by the passengers near the end of the 
trip, because once when he was present the ship nearly 
ran on the rocks and precious lives were in danger. So 
he can come no longer, giving up the pleasure, that no 
danger creep unawares on the ship. No one may stand 
on the bridge with him. One would like to — the out- 
look is fine — but once when he was talking to a passenger, 
he failed to note in time the signs of coming danger. Nor 
may any one go into his stateroom — not even his friends 
or his wife — for his papers and charts and instruments 
must not run the risk of being disturbed. So he gives up 



104 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



many of the passing enjoyments of the trip and submits 
to discipline, that his trust may be faithfully discharged. 

Our personal life is a gift — a sacred trust — for others. 
We are enriched at the point of the bayonet. Wheat 
springs up where the plowshare passed through. It is a 
deep primal necessity for us to struggle if the highest in 
us is to be developed. The best that is in us finds ex- 
pression only so. The critics of the universe say that 
bread and butter should grow on trees. But I do not see 
that the nations are strongest where conditions are easiest. 
It is better to earn your bread in cold weather than to 
pick bananas in warm. The law is, in the sweat of thy 
brow shalt thou eat thy bread," and that is a good 
law, for He who made it knew. 

I read of this incident lately ; — it is true as an isolated 
fact, but I cannot say whether or not it would always be 
the case. A traveller in Africa happened to notice one 
of the large brilliant butterflies of the tropics just as it was 
about to emerge from its cocoon. Pitying the anguish 
of its struggles to free itself, he determined to help it. 
He took out his penknife and cut the ligament at which 
it was straining, and it came out safely and easily, only 
— all its brilliant colouring was gone ! It had needed 
the anguish to develop that. It is good for me that I 
have been afflicted, — good for me that affliction forms 
part of the Lord's method in my development, else how 
can I reflect the brilliancy of the divine life ? Christ's 
showers and storms may beat upon His loved one, but 
they strengthen him so that he can do all things. The 
Apostle said, " Count it all joy when ye fall into divers 
temptations." The manifold temptations were but the 
furnace out of whose crucial fires would shine forth the 
highest graces, tried and precious. The trying of a man 



AFFLICTION 



105 



is the crowning of a man ! In the great Revelation — 
they that are arrayed in white robes, who are they ? and 
whence came they ? Up, up, out of great tribulation ! 
God is training, developing us, fitting us for our highest 
blessedness. Never think for a moment, when His 
strokes fall thick and fast, that He is punishing you. 
God is not punishing, else where would any of us be ? 
He is loving us into something higher than we could ever 
reach by any other means. This world is a training- 
course for better living. 

I want to call your attention to four graces which are 
best developed by affliction. 

I. — Patience. That is the perfect, the perfecting grace. 
What, that / That monotonous grace, bearing all things, 
submitting to all things ? Yes, that grace. The Apostle 
says, *'Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may 
be perfect and entire, ^zxi\\xig nothing ^ It is by sub- 
mitting, yielding, bearing, that we learn. Even Christ 
learned obedience by the things which He suffered. If 
He, then I and you must so learn. Teach children that 
they should never whine. Teach them to burn their 
own smoke, as our great engines do. Train them, en- 
courage them, to keep their troubles inside. 

Slag is not all loss. Dross is not all waste. Emerson 
says a weed is a plant whose uses we have not discovered. 
From our waste products, what do we get ? Our most 
delicate perfumes, our most brilliant dyes. And the 
weeds, many of them, contain heaUng properties. And 
so does patience. Let patience work in you. Endure, 
be steady, and wait for the result which is sure to come, 
when you can say, "I learned patience through the 
things that I suffered." 

II. The second grace developed by affliction, of 



106 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIK 



which I want to speak, is Sympathy, It is the wounded, 
grafted tree that bears the most delicious fruit. One who 
has not suffered has no right to come to you in your an- 
guish with his platitudes. It is an impertinence for him 
to tell you to look on the bright side. You say, " There 
is no bright side; " and he answers, "Then polish the 
dark side." He does not know; he cannot comfort. 
When a person is suffering from nervous exhaustion and 
enduring all the depression that results from it, no one , 
but a fellow sufferer whose suffering is past and triumphed 
over, can bring any relief. 

I remember with great gladness how I was once able to 
comfort a friend, a naval officer, who was going through 
deep waters. Some of you in this room know something 
of the weeks and months of pain through which I passed, 
that brought me the power to help. And when I felt the 
relief coming to him, and knew that the tension was less- 
ening, I said, "It was good for me that I was afflicted." 
Without that experience I should not have known enough 
of what he was bearing, to help. Because of that ex- 
perience I have far wider and deeper knowledge of 
human need. I may not yet know much, but I know 
more than I should have known without it. And so will 
you. Be patient. Try not to grow restive, and you will 
instinctively learn this great lesson of sympathy. 

III. Affliction leads us to a new devotion of our lives. 
First patience, then sympathy, then Usefulness. A loss 
shows us the emptiness of life, and so we learn that we 
are not putting our lives to the best use. Train yourself 
to usefulness. Let God train you to usefulness. Try to 
realize that the noblest thing in life is usefulness. 

But suffering is more than a teacher; she is also a 
guide. Joseph was sold into captivity ; tempted by a 



AFFLICTION 



107 



strong and seductive temptation ; found himself in prison. 
But he bore the suffering with faith in God, and the very 
suffering led him up to his high post — from the prison to 
the right hand of the throne. 

A man lived in this city, whom you would know if I 
mentioned his name. He had a dearly loved daughter, 
and when she died, his heart died. But through that 
loss thousands of girls have been saved from worse than 
death, and led to happy and honoured womanhood. His 
great grief led him unto the light, and he led others 
there. 

John Bright, one of England's greatest orators and 
most useful public men, married young, and on his wed- 
ding-day declared that no one on earth could be so 
happy as he. Within a year his wife was dead, and the 
hope of his life gone out. He was utterly stricken and 
prostrate. Then Richard Cobden came to him and said, 
" Your wife has gone from your side. Can you not give 
your life in memory of her to the women of England, and 
make their lives brighter for her sake ? " He roused him- 
self, and carrying his pain always with him, he did his 
work, till scarcely a man in England was so beloved. 
And years after, when peace had come to him, he said, 
*'My God knew best." 

Oh, let suffering draw you nearer to your God ! 
Through it, learn how much dearer He is than any 
earthly good He displaces. Count it all joy when He 
holds you worthy of such discipline to make you useful 
in His service. 

" Then welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough." 

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted. * ' Men and 



108 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



women need to do something, to go somewhere, to be 
shaken out of their sloth and selfish comfort ; and only 
discipline can lead them to those they can help. Only 
through discipHne can they help. 

IV. And the fourth blessed grace is the knowl- 
edge of God. We never learn to know God till the 
dark hour comes. When Job was in great affliction, his 
wife said, "Curse God and die," but Job said, "No; 
shall we receive good at the Lord's hand, and shall we 
not receive evil? The Lord gave, and the Lord has 
taken away, but blessed be His name. He is left ! " Job 
was too much of a man to curse God ; and after the dark- 
ness was past, he said, " Now mine eye seeth Thee " j but 
it got its power of vision in those dark days. We do not 
think very much about God when all goes well. In busi- 
ness hours we are so absorbed ; our duties need our at- 
tention ; our homes take our time. Children make con- 
stant demands ; they and our friends fill up our lives, and 
we feel no lack. But one day something happens, — our 
business fails and our occupation is gone ; our home is 
broken up ; our children leave us ; our friends forsake us. 
We have broken through the usual and accepted and 
trusted. We feel now that it was the superficial, and we 
say in our bitterness, "Is anything real?" Yes, God 
is. Turn to Him. He never removes His everlasting 
arms. Some time, somewhere, some way, you will 
learn to know the love of God, and an inexplicable peace 
will enfold you despite your loss and pain, because you 
have become sure of God. 

Jacob learned to know God through that long, mid- 
night wrestle that left him with a withered thigh. Do 
you suppose he ever grieved over his deformity ? To 
Heine, harassed, troubled, restless, came the knowledge 



AFFLICTION 



109 



of God by the things he suffered ; and he lost his craft 
and his cunning, and awoke in the greatness of God, — 
awoke to deeper wisdom, a nobler love, a stronger hope 
than he had ever known, — not now alone, but forever with 
God. 

Affliction helps us to understand the problems of life. 
As Tennyson says, it is by sickness and desolation and 
loss and mental doubt that we come to "hold the keys of 
all the creeds." But do not go out of your way for 
trouble. God will send what you need, and so through 
affliction draw you nearer to Himself. And at last you 
can say, as David learned to say, "It is good for me that 
I have been afflicted." 



LITTLE THINGS 



" Be with the man who is vtaking his living 
with difficulty — may he make his life. Whatever 
failure he may meet, may he be a success.^* 



LITTLE THINGS 



" But thoUf Bethlehem Ephrathah^ which art little to be among 
the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me 
that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are of old^from 
everlasting." — Micah 5 : 2. 

IN the Authorized Version our text reads, But thou, 
Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be httle among 
the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He 
come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose 
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." 
Into how many minds does there come at once Phillips 
Brooks' " Bethlehem " ? 

" O little town of Bethlehem, 
How still we see thee lie ! 
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, 
The silent stars go by. 
•X- * * * * * 

How silently, how silently, 
The wondrous gift is given ; " 

— and who does not love the man who wrote the words ! 
Their spirit was exactly his own. To have known him 
was to be thankful that the Spirit of Christ could be so 
incarnated in human nature ; his was the childlike spirit 
almost perfectly, — he seemed to grow into a more and 
more perfect childhood. Once, when a friend went to 
call for him, he found him with a little child before him, 
holding the little one's face between his palms, and he 
looking down steadfastly into the childish eyes, as if he 
113 



114 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



would draw thence the secret of childhood. How many 
Christmases has he already been with Him who was once 
the Babe of Bethlehem ! 

« O little town of Bethlehem 1 " 

Yes, so little that it is not so much as mentioned by 
Nehemiah in his various lists of places to be considered 
and rebuilt ; nor by Joshua. It was too insignificant to 
be noted, but it was David's flock-tower, and to that 
flock-tower how many tired souls have gone and found 
the Good Shepherd, who has taken them in His arms and 
rested their tired souls ! Beth-lehem, House of Bread — 
ah, how many hungering ones have wended their way 
there through the ages, and been fed and filled and satis- 
fied with the Bread of Life ! 

God chooses little things. On this earth He illustrated 
to the universe the relative values of spiritual things. 
Size is nothing to Him, but motive ; space is nothing to 
Him, but spirit. Use and wont hold us like slaves. 
There was the old Ptolemaic system, that seemed some- 
how necessary for the maintenance of God's majesty — the 
church could not let it be touched. The earth must be 
the centre, and the sun and moon and Jupiter and Saturn 
must be satellites, — this was a sacred necessity, for did 
not Christ die here ! And when Copernicus came with 
his new system, and said that the Ptolemaic system was 
wrong, and the sun was the centre and earth the satellite, 
there was consternation. As if one need ever fear Truth f 
especially be fearful of its disturbing God's revelation ! 
God is Himself Truth ! Tennyson felt something of this 
doubt, — we were so little, so insignificant, and God's uni- 
verse was so illimitable ! Could it be that here, on this 
little planet, God's great revelation was made ; that here 



LITTLE THINGS 



115 



the manifestation of the Eternal took place ? And Daniel 
Webster spoke of the same thing in that familiar passage : 
**The philosophical question as to how this little world 
could be the centre of God's great revelation in Christ 
sometimes shakes my faith to its foundations and casts 
me into darkness ; but when I consider the experiences 
of my own soul, when I see how God's revelation and 
my own inward experiences agree, — then, I am stilled 
again." 

Well, that is all theory : this is fact — God did so mani- 
fest Himself in this world and in little Bethlehem. And 
why not? What is size in spiritual measurements? 
Spiritual things are measured by quite other standards 
than any we know from nature. How big a world would 
you like to have had God choose for His revelation, — 
twice as big as our earth? ^*No; bigger than that." 
Ten times as big? No." Well, how big? as big as 
the sun ? "Yes; I think that would suit me." Don't 
you see how absurd that whole system of measurements 
is when applied to spiritual things ! This was the theatre, 
the stage, from which the universe is to view it all ! 
What is the sun ? Only the centre of a little system, 
which, centre and all, is barely to be seen from the 
nearest of fixed stars ! Elijah made the same mistake. 
He expected to find God in the thunder. As it rolled 
around him with its awful reverberations, back he started, 
thinking surely God must be in such majesty of sound. 
A lady said to me lately, " I love to hear the voice of 
God in nature, — the birds and the brooks and the sigh- 
ing of the winds." And the tempest and the lightning 
and the thunder? " I asked her — <*Do you love to hear 
His voice in the thunder ? " Oh, no," she said, the 
thunder terrifies me. Surely, that is not His voice ! " 



116 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



But it is. The word for thunder in Hebrew is very 
beautiful — it means, ''the Voice of Jehovah." ''The 
voice of Jehovah is on the great waters." " The voice 
of Jehovah is rending the cedars." "The voice of 
Jehovah convulses the desert " — that is the thunder, the 
voice of God uttering itself in majesty. But Elijah did 
not find God in it, nor in the wind, nor in the earth- 
quake, but in the still, small voice. 

It is the little things that count, — the still things, the low 
things, things of no moment in the world's estimation. On 
the whole, I think we owe more to fustian than to velvet, 
to hard hands than to soft ones. Not that money and edu- 
cation and art and social graces and influence are of little 
account or of none — not that, but they are only tools at 
best, and we sometimes confuse them with the worker, 
and the workman is always greater than his tools. We 
must classify by power, by spirit, not by size. England 
could be contained in Texas six times, in Russia nearly 
fifty times, but how different is the spirit, and how dif- 
ferent is the accomplishment ! God's plan, purpose, 
aim, design, is to be considered, and not the size of His 
arena. 

Now, let us look at the subject historically. Of what 
importance was Bethlehem? What was it compared 
with Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh ? How did Pharaoh and 
Nebuchadnezzar and Sargon regard it? It is amusing to 
read their ancient cylinders as they are unearthed. "I, 
Sargon, have ground into dust, and caused to cease to 
be, Kuans and Irkanat and Arvad and Israeli and 
Usanat and Sizan ! " Which of them have you ever 
heard of but Israel ? Would you have barely heard of 
Sargon himself but for his connection with Israel ? Yet 
it was a very little people and feeble. The scoffing 



LITTLE THINGS 



117 



heathen said, *'What do these Jews?" A feeble little 
band come back from Babylon, — what do they, indeed ! 
They had no strength, no following. What do these 
Jews ? Well, what do they ? Much ! Who has so in- 
fluenced the world? Who has so moulded religious 
thought ? Whose power do we so feel ? 

And the twelve disciples — ignorant, unlearned fisher- 
nien — what were they? They were twelve men filled 
with the Spirit of Christ, and that, in God's multiplica- 
tion, carries the calculation far beyond the reach of hu- 
man thought- 
Do you remember in the book of Ecclesiastes — I 
think there are moods and tempers in every man's life 
when he enjoys Ecclesiastes. It is a curious book, but I 
think nearly every man has at times a real pleasant and 
enjoyable season of melancholy with it. Well, in that 
book there is an account of an attempt to take a besieged 
city. A great king built mighty bulwarks against it, but 
could not take it because there was in it a poor man who 
joined himself to wisdom, and was more than a match 
for him. It all depends on what our feebleness is joined 
to, what a man rests his weakness upon. 

Do you know who wrote "A Bruised Reed"? Do 
you ? If you do, I wish you would tell me. But some 
one did. And Baxter read it, and found the Lord and 
wrote " The Saints' Rest," which has been the comfort 
and upbuilding of countless souls; and among them 
Doddridge, who, as a result, wrote ^'The Rise and 
Progress of Religion in the Soul"; and Wilberforce 
read that, and started out on his wonderful course, and 
converted Hannah More, who transformed thousands of 
lives — no one can ever calculate the good that woman 
did. Wilberforce also started into action Legh Rich- 



118 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



mond who wrote "The Dairyman's Daughter," which 
has been translated into — who can tell how many 
languages ? It was translated into Turkish and found its 
way into Nichomedia, and when a missionary finally 
made his way into that remote place, he found two 
hundred souls worshipping Christ and living faithful 
lives, with no Bible but *<The Dairyman's Daughter." 
And Wilberforce himself — how many liberated slaves 
hold up their hands and bless God that he lived ! But I 
want to know who wrote A Bruised Reed." 

Who was the man that stood by Moody in a steady, 
helpful friendship all through his boyhood? I do not 
know who he was, but somebody did, and Moody has 
been used by God with mighty power. 

Who was it that met a young man in Japan, and 
asked him if he would like to live forever, and handed 
him a tract, saying it would show him how to do it? I 
do not know, but the young man read the tract, found 
the secret of eternal life, and showed others. From that 
beginning has come the marvellous spread of Christianity 
through Japan. 

Goethe said that the Bible was the book that glorified 
little things. So it does, for little things are beginnings 
and can be nourished into life. Mary kept all these 
things and pondered them in her heart." 

We are bewitched with bigness ; we are bewitched 
with largeness. We need to realize the insignificance 
of circumstances and the infinite significance of life 
itself. We covet praise and recognition and appre- 
ciation and influence and position. Of what moment 
is it ? Of what moment are the tumults of the world, 
the cries of acclamation, the heralding of what the world 
calls great, when, but just a little way up, they are all 



LITTLE THINGS 



119 



lost ill empty space, and you are among the eternal 
silences ? Some of us are on mountains and some in 
deep valleys, but rise only a little above the earth, and 
valleys are exalted and mountains and hills are made low, 
and all are as one before God. And as each man does 
his own work in his own place shall the kingdom of God 
come. 

Yes, out of the eternity behind us, God's love, in one 
great burst of centrifugal power, sought out one system in 
His universe, and in that system He chose our earth, and 
obscure Palestine, and little Bethlehem, and a humble 
manger, narrowing down to one intense point, from 
which, I truly believe, it will continue to radiate till the 
uttermost rim of the earth lives in that Life manifested 
there, till the outermost bound of the universe sees light 
in the light of the Star of Bethlehem, which rose there 
for the instruction of God's universe. For we catch such 
strange suggestions in this Bible, of mysteries that set our 
hearts to throbbing : — " The ages to come," " angels and 
archangels," ''innumerable companies of angels," 

principalities and powers," ''powers of the world to 
come," endless series and ranks of created inteUigences ! 
And in Him, Christ, they all " consist are held to- 
gether. 

Do you ask how this concerns us ? Are you little ? 
Do you feel that you are insignificant? Ah, but the 
Lord has some work for you to do. Have you a Sun- 
day-school class, and are you thinking of giving it up? 
I charge you on your life. Don't ! Go back to it. 
There may be some soul there that needs help that only 
you can give. Take what powers you have ; hold your 
candle as high as you can; let His ministering care 
through you be applied to the bruised reed ; let the 



120 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



breath of His Spirit, active in you, blow on the smoking 
flax, and it shall burst into flame I 

''Ah," you say, "you don't know my life, — howl 
live, how limited I am, how sordid my environment is, 
how from my earliest memories I have been checked and 
hindered, how from out of the darkness of my ancestry a 
hand clutched at me with my first breath and handi- 
capped me for Hfe, how I have to struggle with ill-health 
and evil tendencies and low passions ; oh, if you knew 
it all, you would never tell me that my life could be a 
power for God ! " Yes, I would ; because He expects 
back from you only what He gave to you, with the 
natural increase that comes with the faithful use of it. 
He does not expect the impossible; He expects only 
fidelity with what you have. He does not expect you to 
do another's work, but your own. So only can you 
render Him best service. But see to it that you " make 
all things after the pattern shown to you in the mount." 

Do this. Take the rest of your life, however short it 
may be, or unsatisfactory it has been, and reconsecrate it 
to Him. You say it has been a wasted life ? Let Him 
have the rest, lest it, too, be wasted. If you are just 
starting out in life, let Him have it all, to use as He will. 
I call on every man and woman and child to render up 
his or her life to the Lord, and let Him use it as He sees 
best. Is it little ? He can increase it by His own divine 
Spirit. Is it all blackened and sin-stained ? Give it into 
His hands, and He can cleanse and sweeten and use it. 
Is it still unblemished and untried ? Give it into His 
keeping, and do something for Him. 

You fathers, take your sons by the hand, and speak to 
them of Christ. It is hard, I know, but hard things 
count. 



LITTLE THINGS 



121 



Mothers, speak to your children. What if the tears do 
come into your eyes ? It is no shame for the tears to 
come when you are speaking of the deep things of God 
— nor at any other time for them to come into a mother's 
eyes. You can never tell what may be the influence of 
even one word truly spoken, and spoken for Christ. 

A man, of standing in this city and widely known, 
met a friend one New Year's morning, and said, I wish 
you a Happy New Year," and was about to pass on, 
when he turned back and added, *'I wish it could be a 
new year with God " ; to which his friend responded with 
polite indifference, "Very kind of you, indeed; thank 
you." Gathering courage from what had been said, he 
asked, Do you know God? " No." Then growing 
bolder with every effort, he said, " I wish you did. I 
knew your father, and loved him well. Will you go 
home and get down on your knees and give yourself to 
God?" No answer. "Will you?"— "Will you?" 
— <'Will you? "—"Yes, I will 1 " And he did, and 
found Him, and has been leading others to Him ever 
since. It didn't seem much to do, did it ? Will you do 
as much? Some day you will lay these tools aside. 
When we die — and we all shall die — He will give us 
other work and other tools. When we lay these aside, 
let them be worn out in faithful work for Him, so that 
He can promote us ! " Though thou art little, yet ! ' ' 



OPPORTUNITY 



'* Teach us the infinite significance of the op- 
portunities of life, and the insignificafice of the 
setting of life. May we wear ourselves not 
out for giltf and lose the gold.^^ 



OPPORTUNITY 



« Not always:' — MARK 14 : 7. 

THESE two words at once suggest to you the 
thought of passing opportunity. In many 
questions that present themselves to you for 
decision, it is now or never, for ''not always" do they 
return. Ah, if we could only know which moments are 
of importance ! which could be safely left aside ! But 
opportunities do not come to us labelled ; they are not 
appraised; they come like little children, looking up in- 
nocently at us, holding up their hands to us : — but some 
little child holds the secret of the future, and some mo- 
ment is fraught with opportunity. And since we cannot 
know, I see nothing for it but to do the best we can with 
every moment. Down the centuries God sends you your 
opportunity, into this year, this day, this hour — how do 
you know ? Be alert ; be conscientious ; the opportunity 
may not come again, or, if it does, that saddest of all 
conditions may be yours, — that it comes not to the same 
being, that you are not ready and willing to take it as 
you were before, when you hesitated. The moment when 
such an impulse of response comes to you may be what 
the philosophers call a psychological moment, and may 
hold the secret of your life's development, — may hold 
the secret of your eternal destiny. "Not always" do 
such chances repeat themselves. 

Once there was a man named Esau, and when the op- 
portunity of his life came to him he failed to recognize it, 
and filled his life with regrets. Once there was a woman 
125 



126 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



named Esther, and she saw her opportunity, and saved 
her nation, and filled her life with rejoicings. She had a 
wise old uncle who said to her, " Who knoweth whether 
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ! " 
How do you know that you are not come to this very time 
of your life, to this end of this century, to do some great 
thing for God ! 

Once a man named Simon was asked by his dearest 
friend to watch with him, because his heart was heavy 
and his spirit was sick within him, but — Simon slept ! 
Do you not suppose that through all his after life he re- 
gretted that he had failed his friend the only time he ever 
asked him to watch? Not always," not again co^Xdi. 
he do such a service for him. A woman named Mary 
once broke a very costly box of ointment on her Master's 
head, and filled the house and the centuries with its fra- 
grance, because she saw and used her opportunity. Else 
she had anointed only His dead body ! 

Oh, the regrets of life ! Are there some here whose 
hearts are clutching at them while I speak, as they think 
of the kind words they might have said to those who have 
forever passed away from them ? Do not spend your 
time in regret. Redeem the time. By the sadness of 
those past memories I summon you to live for those who 
are left. Say the kind thing. Speak the encouraging 
word. If you have a carping or a cynical or a critical 
thing to say, don't say it ; repress it. Remember that in 
criticism is bound up construction. Do not express the 
criticism unless you have a remedy to suggest, — at least, 
do not express it publicly. Go off by yourself, and if 
you can think of no method of improvement, then refuse 
to criticise. How much less criticism there would be if 
it had always to be accompanied by a remedy ! It would 



OPPOETUNITY 



127 



be, if you remembered that criticism and construction are 
inseparably united. But if your disapproval is as a fire 
in your bones and must be expressed, an honest and (as 
you think) a necessary criticism, and yet you have no 
remedy to suggest, there is only one alternative — say 
frankly and freely, I think this thing is wrong ; I can see 
no way to right it, but I hope some one else can." As a 
rule, however, give help instead of criticism. Begin to- 
morrow (perhaps to-day) to encourage some child under 
your care. Speak kindly to servants. Show interest in 
your employees. Yes, more than that. Encourage some 
aged one, who has reached gray hairs and perhaps feels 
that he is no longer wanted, and has dropped his tools. 
From the warmth and vigour of your life put new energy 
into him, and see how he catches up his tools again, and 
with a new light in his eyes goes on with his work. 

Did you ever see a smouldering fire — ^just a mass of 
smoke with no tongue of flame ? And did you ever get 
down on your knees and puff at it, and see it burst into 
light? Can't you do that with some discouraged life? 
Come down from what we call your ''high horse," 
and speak words of cheer to that one and start him on 
again. All about you are discouraged people. Many 
a man showing a brave front to the world is only prac- 
ticing that holy hypocrisy which Christ speaks of when 
He tells men to anoint their heads and appear not unto 
men to fast. They are bearing heavy loads bravely, but 
they need a word of encouragement. 

I want to press this farther. I want to plead that you 
express your love. Don't be ashamed to show it. It is 
noble and godlike to love and to be loved, to long for 
love and to show love, and we stunt our natures when we 
deny to them their natural expression. I am sorry for 



128 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



the dumb boy who finds it so hard to say a word of love 
to his mother, to his sister ; yet the embarrassments of 
love are the proofs of love, and you want your love 
proved even at that price. But, ah, how many of you 
catch your breath as you think of the words of love you 
might have said, and would so gladly say now if you 
could! Don't lose anymore chances. This continual, 
stream of opportunities, of chances, is what Emerson 
meant when he said, ''Every day is a day of doom." 

Dom Pedro was once asked what he thought was the 
secret of the different development of South America and 
of North America, and he rephed " Manana [To-morrow], 
You North Americans never let an opportunity slip j we 
always wait." That is a good motto — "Never put off 
till to-morrow what you can do to-day." A business man 
says, "Don't put it off till this afternoon; do it this 
morning." A good business man says, "Don't put it off 
five minutes ; do it now .-^ " By working in this way, you 
come to realize something of the intensity of God's life, 
who works in an eternal now. 

To all of you comes the thought of posthumous gifts — 
the flowers at a funeral, the set pieces — when a little 
bunch of violets given now would bring tears of joy to 
the eyes you love so well. Is it not foolish to trust your 
gifts to a fallible, uncertain, breakable will, which may 
be set aside, when you might be your own executor and 
have all the joy of distributing your own bounty? Don't 
be too ambitious about the things of this life, about ac- 
quisition, accumulation ; but be ambitious about the 
kingdom of God and your relation to it. In the Roman 
arena there was a kind of contest between the two com- 
batants, one armed with a sword, and the other with a 
net and a trident. The net .vas a delicate little silken af- 



OPPORTUNITY 



129 



fair that could be gathered up in the hand, and the con- 
test seemed a very unequal one. But the man with the 
net, who was called a retiariusy threw it out in many di- 
rections, and knew well that if he could once entangle his 
antagonist in those delicate meshes, he could use his 
trident with deadly effect, and his opponent's sword 
would be useless. So the spirit of this world throws out 
the net of ambition and money and political power and 
social position, and (unless we are ever watchful) renders 
the sword of the Spirit useless. Therefore be watchful. 
Look for your opportunity to serve Christ. 

But I cannot close without an appeal to you on a yet 
higher plane. What is your attitude towards Jesus 
Christ ? Surely, in an audience like this there must be 
some who are just wondering whether to yield themselves 
up to their Saviour or not. Act on the good impulse. 
Do not let it cool. Do you suppose Mary would ever 
have broken that alabaster-box if she had stopped to con- 
sider ? Many a good impulse is lost through delay. 

Hartley Coleridge, who every one had a right to expect 
would reach the same high level as his father, once on 
his return home picked up a school-book that had been 
given to him long before. He looked it over, and then 
wrote in it, ''Only seventeen years had passed over me 
when this book was given to me. Then all looked for- 
ward with joy and hope to what I was to become. 
Now, every mother prays that her lamb — every father 
hopes that his boy — will never be what I have become." 
Is there any man here who, as he takes a little child by 
the hand, hopes he will never know what he knows, will 
never become what he is ? The only way to check the 
decay is to return to your Father. But for the young 
man and the young woman far better is it to heed the 



130 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



plea — O remember 7iow thy Creator, in the days of 
thy youth" ; before the evil days come when, in place of 
all the glad enthusiasms that now surge in your heart, 
you must say, as you confront the sadness of your expe- 
rience, I have no pleasure in them." But do it now ; 
every delay gives the opportunity the chance to pass — 
yes, worse, it changes you, and perhaps you will be in- 
capable of response to it if it should return. While you 
hesitate it may be gone. What would you think of a 
farmer who should refuse to plough after the rain while the 
ground was soft, on the plea that he farmed on principle, 
and it was not right to take advantage of the condition of 
the ground ? or of a blacksmith who put his iron into the 
forge and drew it out red and soft, and then said, "It is 
not fair to attack it while it is in that condition. I will 
let it cool and then show my muscle ' ' ? You would say 
he was a fool. Then apply it. When God softens your 
heart and fills you with tender and exalted impulses, 
when you feel Him drawing you towards Himself, re- 
spond to Him. Every time you send Him away from 
you, you make it easier to shut your heart to Him next 
time. Every time you fail to open the door to His 
knocking, the hinge grows rustier and the bolt is harder 
to draw. 

I heard a story this week which set my heart to thump- 
ing, — a story of the men on the English coast who climb 
the cliffs to secure the birds' eggs. They are let down by 
ropes, and they fill their baskets as they stand on the 
projecting ledges. One man, as he began to collect, hap- 
pened, somehow, to let the rope slip, and there he stood, 
helpless, resourceless, as the rope swung out — a hundred 
feet from the top of the cliff and many more from the 
sea foaming below him. With the quick instinct born of 



OPPOETUKITY 



131 



danger and self-preservation he knew he must catch that 
rope as it swung back the first time, because it then 
swung nearer to him than it would again, and to lose it 
meant starvation and thirst and dizziness and a plunge 
into the sea below. So, watching it intensely, he calcu- 
lated its speed, where it would swing in, and as it came 
he jumped for it, and — caught it ! He did it, but if he 
had not done it then he would never have done it. 

No impulse can ever return with its first force ; it is 
different either in degree or in its power of appeal to you. 
What is life but the perpetuation of principles which you 
have all along been forming — the petrification of moral 
decisions — the crystallization of voluntary choices ? 
That is what is meant in The Revelation, " He that is 
unjust let him be unjust still " ; that is, He that is un- 
just will be unjust still; he that is filthy will be filthy 
still." He that is righteous let him be righteous still ; 
he that is holy let him be holy still," — he will be; char- 
acter tends to solidify ; not always do the currents run 
back and renew the chance. I am a hopeful man, I am 
not a pessimist ; I look for the good in men, and I ex- 
pect to find it, but I can see no appeal from the work- 
ings of God's laws, — they tend to permanence. They 
are the same everywhere ; they must be, for God's crea- 
tion is a uni-verse, an integrity, an integer. Put your- 
selves into harmony with those laws now. Don't be 
afraid to give yourself over to God, for " I am persuaded 
that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him 
against — that day ' ' ? Yes, and every day in between. 
I would make the whole life an intelligent choice and 
seizure of opportunity. 

No one will ever regret that he made this decision for 
Christ to-day, if he do but make it. This may be the 



132 FEAGMEKTS THAT EEMAIN 



year of your home-going. School days may be nearly 
over for you. When I was in school I learned a piece to 
the effect that there was a part in the race of life for me 
— a part no one else could take, and an individuality in 
my work. It is true. Find your place. Use your op- 
portunities. They return " not always." 



THE GOD WHOM WE WORSHIP 



" Listen to us now, as in the silence of our own 
hearts we express to Thee those needs which 
might seem trivial to others^ but which mean so 
much to us in our weakness. By Thy forgive- 
ness we hope to live lives needing less forgiveness 
— lives that shall ring with victory ^ 



THE GOD WHOM WE WORSHIP 

" And when they arose early on the i7iorrow morning, behold 
Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the 
Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the pabtis of his hands 
were cut off upon the threshold — only the stump of Dagon was left 
to him.'' — I Samuel 5 : 4. 

FOR many years this whole chapter has been a 
source of great interest to Bible students; to 
some from real mterest ; to some from pure 
criticism — because they were of a critical turn of mind ! 
It has even been a source of humour and fun to some. 
"Why," they say, "this was the fish-god, with scaly 
hands and a fish's tail, much like the Greek mermaids ; 
what would be the sense of offering mice to such a god ? 
What possible relation is there between the two? " So 
they have disported their minds and had much merri- 
ment over this record. But the Bible has stood other 
attacks, and will stand this, and many more. God has 
an archaeological mind, and His safe, in which He keeps 
the secrets of the ages, has a time-lock; this safe He 
opens just when His records need support, and always 
corroborates them. Don't grow nervous over the Bible ; 
it is the guardian of truth, and there is much more im- 
portance in what it thinks of men than what men think 
of it. It has weathered attacks from men quite as able 
as we, and of ages quite as cultured as ours, and is in no 
danger of overthrow. 

If you should go to Oxford, England, you would see, 
in the museum there, a beautiful crystal, on one side of 
135 



136 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIK 



which is inscribed, **Baal-Dagon," and on the other a 
field of wheat. And so this god was not the fish-god of 
Babylonia, after all, but the Baal-Dagon of the Philistine 
farmers, and guardian of the fields and of the processes 
of growth. And there was nothing ludicrous or incon- 
sistent in propitiating this god by golden images of the 
little field-mice, that destroyed so much of his work. 
Time will see to the fitting of God's truth into the needs 
of our lives ; eternity only can show its marvellous reach 
and adaptation. 

There is no time for me to read the next chapter, but 
you must have been impressed with the power and pathos 
of the one I did read. Israel has been defeated in an 
important battle and her warriors are on the run. They 
have turned their backs on their God, and so they turn 
them on their enemies. When we face our God — when 
we look up into His face with trust and faith — we can 
also look our enemies in the face, and they fall before 
us. But the Israelites were God-forsaken because they 
were God-forsaking, and God had sent on them a strong 
delusion that they should believe a lie. That is said in 
Thessalonians, but it is true of all time. If truth is not 
welcomed, the lie will compel an entrance. I suppose it 
is because the moral nature, also, abhors a vacuum, and 
something must come in where God has been pushed 
out. The empty house is not left empty ; God must be 
there, or the evil spirit will call in seven other spirits 
worse than itself. If you have no moral standard and 
incentive, you spend your time in idle activity; you 
twirl your fingers behind your back, or you rattle dice,, 
or you seek to a clairvoyant — some anchorage, some fill- 
ing, the moral nature must have. So Israel, in its great 
straits, not having a God, casts about for some means of 



THE GOD WHOM WE WOESHIP 137 



defense. They say, *<Send for the ark of God ; it will 
save us ! " /// /// There was their mistake. No 
thing can save a person. Everywhere it is life — life in 
activity, in manifestation — life, more abundant life, and 
only God can give that. If you are in trouble, seek no 
amulet, no charm, no formula, no use and wont, no sys- 
tem of philosophy, no business occupation. Leave things 
alone. Things are but barriers between you and the 
help you need. Seek the living God ! Never say 
when you can say, "God, the Father Almighty." The 
Children of Israel were come to a hard pass, and good 
enough for them it was, for their abandonment of the 
God whose wonderful deliverances even the Philistines 
remembered and feared. Poor old Eli receives the news, 
— "The battle is gone against us!" That he could 
stand. "The army is fled ! " That he could bear, for 
Jehovah had marshalled its panic-stricken and scattered 
forces before. — "Thy two sons are dead!" But he 
gave no sign. — " The ark of God is taken ! " Then Eli 
fell backwards and his neck brake. But, ah, his heart 
was broken first ! And his daughter was near to be de- 
livered of a child, and her pains came upon her, and she 
bowed herself and brought forth her son, her first-born, 
the little boy who was never to know his grandfather or 
his father or his mother. And when they roused her to 
tell her that she had brought a man into the world, she 
said, " Call him Ichabod, for the glory is departed from 
Israel," for she thought on the ark of God and her father 
and her husband. It always gives me a chilly sensation 
— just as when I hear "The Two Grenadiers" — "The 
Emperor is dead, dead, dead ! " It is awful! "The 
battle is gone against us ; the army is fled ; thy two sons 
are dead ; and the ark of God is taken ! " 



138 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



But see the Philistines — how they shout and rejoice ! 
See their exultation in their victory ! Hear their shouts 
and acclaim ! See them run up the hill after the charge ! 
What exhilaration and triumph ! The famous ark is in 
their hands, and their gods are stronger than the God of 
Israel. They shout and exult ! They are wild with 
joyous excitement ! There is great tumult of joy among 
them ! But at last the music dies out, and the noises die 
down, and the rejoicing is over, and night is come, and 
all is quiet. All is quiet, except that in their temple 
where they have placed the ark, at midnight there is a 
sudden sound of something falling. Listen — a heavy 
thud ! — And in the morning they find Dagon fallen on 
the floor with his face bowed before the ark — before the 
ark ! What do they do with him ? Why, they set him 
up again on his pedestal, and proceed to worship him as 
aforetime. On the morrow — on the morrow — he is down 
again, and his head is broken off and his hands are gone, 
and the stump is left to him — only the stump ! What 
do they do this time ? Set him up again ? No, they are 
afraid, and decide to get rid of the ark. A truth has 
shot clear across their lie, and they get rid of the truth — 
it makes them uncomfortable. 

We are all idolaters. Some cry, " Great is Diana of 
the Ephesians!" Some shout for Baal-Dagon. Some 
worship money, music, intellectual attainment, social 
power. The object of worship differs with the devotee. 
It is always only the shadow of ourselves, but the shadow 
cast is very large and obscures much. Sometimes there 
is some iron in our idols, but always a good deal of clay ; 
yet we worship them with a vast amount of complacency. 
We offer them costly offerings and are happy in our de- 
votion. Everything goes smoothly and we are con- 



THE GOD WHOM WE WOESHIP 139 



tent. But one day we find a greater than Baal-Dagon ; 
our idol falls before it and is broken. We hardly know 
what to do ; we are astonished and confused. But we 
lift it up and stand it in its place again, and give it our 
devotion as aforetime. Yet we rather distrust our silent 
divinity that never speaks. However, we settle down to 
our life again. Our writing, our music, our attainments, 
satisfy us pretty well ; we even have a sense of growing 
satisfaction in them, and say to ourselves, "I am doing 
very well, very well indeed ; on the whole, my life is very 
satisfactory." Then in the midst of your reestablished 
complacency, something goes wrong in your temple ; your 
idols are failing you. The worship becomes disorganized 
and you grow restless. You indulge in increased activity. 
You are disturbed, but you try not to show it, not to feel 
it. You try to be consistent with your former methods 
and standards. Oh, the curse of consistency ! ''It has 
been this way so long, it must be right. I will not 
change. I will settle down to what brought me content- 
ment before." Don't ; don't even try to be satisfied that 
way — find the noblest way out. 

** Life is a sheet of paper white 
On which each one of us must write 
A line or two, — and then comes night. 

If you have time 

For but a line 

Makes that sublime ! 

Not failure, but low aim is crime." 

I know I am probing some hearts here to-day to their 
inner recesses. You are busy and occupied and useful, 
but you are not satisfied. ''Yes," you say, *' I am ! " 
Honestly? Is there no hunger? no restlessness? no 
longing to know the truth of the stronger God who has 



140 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



demolished your dreams ? These disturbing ones — these 
messengers of that stronger God — have invaded the re- 
gion where dreams come true and have destroyed forever 
the possibility of complacency on the old levels. No past 
dream will satisfy you now. This is true of many Chris- 
tians, too. They give a half-hearted service, and that 
grudgingly. Of the royal law of liberty that comes of 
self-abnegation, they know nothing. Of the enthusiasm 
of self- forgetting devotion, they have no conception. 
How can they have ? They settle down into ruts and 
stay there. Some one has said there is no difference be- 
tween "groove" and "grave" but death, and even that 
will be but a slight change to some so-called Christians. 
They take as their favourite text, " Be not righteous over- 
much " ; and they live up to it. They read about the 
wonderful Teacher come from God (having left His pre- 
existent glory), washing the disciples' feet, and they say, 
" All that is different now." They read of one who gave 
all the living that she had to the service of her God, and 
they say, " Beautiful ! but of course that is not expected 
of us now." Or, there is Sister Dora, of whom I have 
been reading this week. One little girl, when dying, as- 
sured her that she would meet her when she came to 
heaven, and give her some fresh flowers — such sunshine 
had she brought into the child's life. But they say, 
" Such lives are very charming, but it is quite imprac- 
ticable for us now." They cannot be moved out of their 
groove, and they try to be happy with Baal-Dagon. 
But they cannot ; they have heard, and they cannot es- 
cape from, that wonderful story of Christ's great love and 
sacrifice, and forever afterwards Baal-Dagon lies prone 
before this Prince of the Heart, and can never again sat- 
isfy his worshippers. 



THE GOD WHOM WE WOESHIP 141 



I speak to the unsatisfied people here. I do not mean 
unsatisfied on exciting days, when with other worshippers 
you crowd the temple of Baal, and the shouts and music 
drown all other thoughts and make any other allegiance 
seem impossible ; probably on such a day you are not 
unsatisfied. But the common day comes, when there is 
no buoyant excitement, and a sense of longing haunts 
you, and you think of Christ, and hesitate, and wonder 
what you will do. Do you then turn your back on Christ 
and return to Dagon ? The young ruler came running to 
Christ, and begged to be led, but found the following too 
hard, and turned away again. — Do you ? 

Still, even in the common day, you may quiet yourself 
with what has quieted you before, and be nearly content. 
But in the night, even an ordinary night, you go to bed 
and you do not fall asleep at once. You hear the tick- 
ing of the clock that marks the passing of time, and you 
know that it is slipping away from you. You hear the 
pulses of that faithful little organ, the heart — beat, 
beat, beat ! — steady throbbing of your life. And you think 
how that life is passing on — how ideals are not being re- 
alized, how purposes are not being attained — and you 
wonder if it is worth while to live. You recognize the 
dismemberment of your idol, and the dismemberment of 
an idol is hard to face. You know your life is bringing 
you no true satisfaction. And the steady beat, beat, 
beat, goes on, irresistible. 

What will you do ? Will you go back to your idol at 
break of day ? Will you take the headless stump and set 
it up again in its place ? If you do, you are committing 
deliberate moral suicide. For it is a vastly different 
thing to go on serving an idol that as yet you have no 
reason to doubt, from serving that same idol when you 



142 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



realize its powerlessness, and when the true God has 
asked for your allegiance — and you know He has. 

May the true God before whom all idols must fall, lead 
you to give yourself to Him in a complete consecration 
that knows no reservation ! 



WORK: I 



" Thou hast jnade Thy laws firfn and strin- 
gent ^ for Thou wouldst not have us triflers and 
idlers. May we learn that one reason why we 
suffer is that others, looking at us, may learn 
how to suffer. 



WORK: 1 



« My Father worketk hitherto ^ and I work." — John 5 : 17. 



^^^^ only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou 
hast sent " ; " He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Fa- 
ther, and / will love him " ; He that seeth Me, seeth 
Him that sent Me." These and many others all plainly 
teach the divinity of Christ. How can a man believe 
that He was either mentally or morally responsible if He 
was not divine ? For He claimed to be divine. The 
Jews fully understood this, and " therefore took up stones 
to stone Him ; not only because He broke the Sabbath, but 
that He said God was His Father, thereby making Himself 
equal with God." 

But I am not now concerned with the divinity of Christ, 
but with the divinity of toil. I mean to speak on another 
aspect of the subject this afternoon, and will try not to 
trench on it this morning ; but I want now to show, if 
possible, that toil — all honest toil — is the reflection of the 
activity of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
While the Jews were trifling over what a man may do on 
the Sabbath, Christ was working in glorious imitation of 
and obedience to His Father. Whence comes the feeling 
that it is lowering to work ; that it is far more exalted to 
draw the purple robes of our idleness about us, and be 
waited on ? The Chinese noble lets his finger-nails grow 
into long, horny, horrid talons to prove to the world that 




UR text is one of the great sayings of Christ, 
like : " This is eternal life, to know Thee, the 



146 



146 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



he is not a craftsman, that he never handles tools. We 
have a feeling of disgust for that, but is there not in the 
minds of some of us a subcutaneous sympathy with 
him? 

This feeling that work is ignoble does not come from 
God. He works ; and when, in olden times, He would 
choose men for His own special commissions, He called 
a David from his flock, or a Saul from his farm, or a 
Gideon from his threshing-floor. To the Church at 
Antioch He said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for 
the work whereunto I have called them." Right from 
their daily work He called them. Did He choose idlers ? 
Certainly not — He had work to be done. 

The idea does not come from Christ. He works, too. 
His life was ceaseless activity — no leisure, so much as to 
eat. In art. He is represented as gentle, in the sense of 
being efleminate and weak. Weak ? Never ! After His 
agony in the Garden, that great cry on the cross from 
His broken heart could never have been the cry of a weak 
man. His whole life trained Him for strength. He 
handled the saw and the plane ; He made ploughshares 
and yokes ; He could sleep in a storm. It is the glory 
of toil that His hands were hardened and calloused by 
labour. 

The idea does not come from the Apostles. Listen to 
Paul's strenuous rule for the idle Thessalonians : " Whoso 
will not work, neither let him eat." 

It does not come from our first parents ; — they had a 
garden to take care of. Toil was not the curse on them, 
for they toiled before the Fall. The care of that garden 
must have been beautiful work. I have always hoped to 
be able to work in a garden myself, to work in honest 
dirt, to smell the soil as it smelt when I was a boy. I 



W O E K 



147 



hope some time to do my work as a minister, and play in 
a garden. 

What is play? What is the difference between it and 
work? Some one has said, Play is activity as an end, 
and work is activity for an end." There is a great dif- 
ference ; but note that both are forms of activity. Play 
should be a preparation for work, the leading of activity 
into right channels. Therefore, watch your children's 
games. Let their games be a help; direct them; don't 
let them be games of chance, for it gives them false ideas 
of Hfe. Life is not chance, but a great system, social 
order, the interrelation of activities, — for this reason, keep 
your children from games of chance. Let them play; 
play is good, — a sheep, a lamb, a kid, a dear little boy or 
girl, — it is good to see them play. But you ? You should 
be at work. It is mental, moral, physical suicide for you 
to drop out of the ranks of the workers. 

But this idea that toil is ignoble must have originated 
somewhere. Perhaps it came from the old feudal system, 
where some were to fight, and some were to stay at home 
and work; and the glory gathered round the fighters. 
That was a very primitive state of society. It prevailed 
among the North American Indians — the braves went to 
war, or they hunted ; and the squaws did the housework, 
the baking, the farming. This division, of those who work 
and those who war, prevails only in a most rudimentary 
social state ; but in a more refined form it obtains among 
us — the served and the servant. It must be a part of the 
abnormal attitude of our fallen nature towards life. Any- 
thing abnormal — against the rule, out of place — has this 
same disturbing effect on our conceptions. 

Whatever your social setting, find your work, and do 
it faithfully. Your Father and your Brother work. You 



148 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



get far more tired of what you have than of what you do. 
Just think of it, and see if it is not so. Ruskin said, 
"Life without industry is sin; industry without art is 
brutality"; and I add, Industry without heart is pro- 
ductive of deadness, lifelessness." Activity is much, but 
it is not all. Combined with it must be consideration for 
others. I do not want to touch on the afternoon's theme, 
but there must be community of interest with others, and 
a sympathetic adjustment of our activities to them. 
Madame de Stael said that her idea of life was "to be 
forever busy at what is worth while." Aristotle defined 
life as "energy in action." Be alive, and find out what 
form of activity will most worthily express your individ- 
uality ! And train your children to the same conception 
of life. 

I once had a friend send me some lines he had taken 
from a journal, with the request that when I reached the 
seaside, and the salt spray was making me tingle with life, 
I would set them to music, as he would like his boys to 
learn to sing them. I did it, and would be glad to send 
a copy of them to any one who would like to have them. 

" O hark ! for the hour is coming 

When your ears shall anointed be. 
Ay, listen ! 'Tis rising and swelling 

O'er populous land and sea. 
The morning stars began it 

At the dawn of Creation's birth ; 
And the circling spheres go swinging, 

And singing it unto earth. 
And earth shall forget her groaning, 

And learn the song of the spheres ; 
And the tired shall sing, that are moaning ; 

And the sad shall dry their tears. 



WORK 



149 



Chorus 

" Blessed are they that work ! 
Blessed are they that work ! 
For they shall inherit the earth 
In the dawning day. 

« Lo, the burden shall be divided, 

And each shall know his own ; 
And the royalty of manhood 

Shall be more than crown or throne ; 
And the flesh and blood of toilers 

Shall no longer be less than gold ; 
And never an honest life shall be 

Into hopeless bondage sold. 
For we, the people, are waking ; 

And high and low shall employ 
The splendid strength of union 

For liberty, Hfe and joy ! 

" For the song of the spheres is motion ; 

And motion and toil are life ! 
And the idle shall fail and falter 

And yield at the end of strife. 
As the stars tread the path appointed, 

And the sun gives forth his heat, 
So the sons of men shall labour 

Ere they rest in leisure's seat. 
And the kings are to serve the people, 

And wealth is to ease the poor, 
And learning, to lift up the lowly. 

And strength, that the weak may endure." 

I venture to repeat Kipling's rugged sturdy lines. 
The poem would hardly be classed among religious poems, 
but it is strong and virile, and our Christian hymnology 
is most wofully lacking in those characteristics. There is 
too much mere contemplation ; for heaven, and the life 
there, means vastly more than this. 



150 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



" When earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are 
twisted and dried, 
And the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic 
has died, 

We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it — lie down for 

an seon or two, 
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to 

work anew ! 

" And those that were good shall be happy : they shall sit in 
a golden chair ; 
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of 
comets' hair ; 

They shall find real saints to draw from — Magdalene, Peter 
and Paul ; 

They shall work for an age at a sitting, and never be tired 
at all ! 

« And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master 
shall blame ; 

And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work 
for fame ; 

But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his sep- 
arate star, 

Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things 
as They Are ! " 

Why doesn't some one put that sentiment into the form 
of a hymn that we could use in our churches ? It will 
be done. 

And there is that poem of Arthur Clough : — Travel 
west — put your girdle round the earth — dare, venture, 
achieve, — not for reward, but for the joy of the doing. 

Even in your body it is the activity and not the recep- 
tivity that is more essential. I am not sure of this — I 
have not thought it through. It came to me only this 
morning when I was thinking over my subject, and I 



W O E K 



151 



have had no time to test it, but I think it is right. Con- 
sider your digestive apparatus, its constant activity ; and 
if you experience four hours of indigestion after each 
meal, you will need no argument to prove to you that its 
unnoticed activity is far more important than the few- 
minutes of pleasurable receptivity. So with your lungs 
— but you think it out. 

0 the joy of work ! The sense of self-mastery 
and the mastery of tools ! To feel the energy throbbing 
through you, and to know that you can control and guide 
that energy ! To know that you can make every bit of 
it worth while ! Ah," you say, " if you knew what my 
life is you would not say so. If you knew on what a low 
plane I must work ; how sordid, how uninteresting, how 
monotonous it is ! You don't know my life. Such work 
as mine cannot be uplifting, and you would not say it 
was if you knew." Yes, I would. I regret that the sky- 
line is shut out of so many lives. I arraign the social 
conditions that make it so. They should be adjusted, 
and every man should be working towards that end. 
But be patient ! It is for such a little while ! Do the 
best you can where you are, or you will never be fitted 
for a higher or more responsible place. Use well the 
tool that is in your hand, and so prepare yourself to use 
a more delicate tool. It will be given to you as soon as 
you are fully able to handle it. God will find you if you 
are busy, just where and as He has found all His workers 
— where He had placed them. And He will promote 
you if you are worthy of promotion. He does not waste 
energy. He always puts force where it will tell most. 

1 want to make three applications of this subject. 
Work fits us to know, and to grow, and to enjoy. 

1. Work fits us to know, —to know God, and to know 



152 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



ourselves, and to know life. After you have done your 
day's work, find some one whom you can help. It is a 
sure cure for skepticism. Not in any easy chair, not 
from a book, not from friends whom you admire, and 
who, in their turn, admire you, do you get forceful 
growth, but in activity for those in need. From these 
you get clearer views of life. No man so occupied ever 
doubts God or His goodness. It is easy to go to the 
club in the evening, but if you would seek out misery 
and suffering, you would have full assurance of the di- 
vine as you felt it throbbing through you. Yes, you 
have a right to yourselves, to selfness, that is, to self- 
preservation, but not to the extent of disregarding the 
needs of others. Use your leisure in such a way as to 
prepare you for more effective work. See what Glad- 
stone did — after his days of hard labour, way into his old 
age — he sought out the poor of London, and went to 
them with help and cheer and counsel. Suppose at fifty 
he had said, " I have done my work ; now I will rest " 
— then never that long life and full energy; never that 
crown of snowy glory ! 

II. Wholesome work makes us grow. You grown-up 
people understand the development of muscle, but there 
are some children here, and I would like to explain it for 
them. You move your arm, and the muscle is used up 
little by little with every motion, and drifts off in a fine 
dust, and floats away on the rivers of the veins. Then 
you take a long breath of fresh air, and the blood, which 
by that time has reached the lungs, is purified and sent 
back to the heart. And the heart, by its steady action — 
pump, pump, pump, — sends it back to the very place 
where the waste, the use, was ; and the arm is built up 
again by tiny, dust-like particles. Or, if the need is else- 



W O E K 



153 



where, then to that place the particles are sent. When 
you think hard, the head gets red, because the blood is 
carrying its fresh matter there, where, just then, the need 
is most tremendous. 

So in the spiritual life. Use, and you will grow. 
Where you spend, you will be supplied ; where you give, 
you will have it returned to you, good measure, shaken 
together, pressed down, and running over. If you do 
not use, you dwindle, as the unused muscle does. 

III. Activity gives us the power to enjoy. Would 
you rather sing, or hear singing? Well, it would de- 
pend 1 But, all things being equal, the joy comes with 
the doing. Would you rather paint, or pay the admis- 
sion fee to see a painting ? O, the joy of being able to 
express one's self in colours ! Would you rather do, or 
have some one do for you — rather minister, or be min- 
istered unto ? 

God does not say, " Well thought ! " though thought 
is often activity for Him ] nor, " Well said I " though a 
true word, bravely spoken, is often loving service for 
Him : but He looks at all from the point of work, and 
says, Well done / enter into the joy of your Lord." 

Doing service for some of His little ones about you, — 
for our earth-life cannot be lived in heaven, but must be 
lived in the world, if it is to be lived for Him — that is 
the way Christ lived, when He and His Father worked. 



WORK: II 



" May what we receive to-day hifluefice what 
we do to-morrow y aiid make some one yearn for 
Thy gift:' 



WORK: II 



My Father worketh hitherto ^ and I work y — John 5 : 17. ' 

" IV Father worketh hitherto, and I work," — 

% / 1 and / work ! This is what each of us 

X ▼ JL should add: — "My Father worketh hith- 
erto and I work, and / work ! " so that the divine con- 
tinuity be not destroyed. I quote Ruskin again : " Life 
without industry is sin ; industry without art is brutality." 
But art is relation. One tone, one tint, one stroke, one 
act — is not art. It has no relation ; it leads nowhere ; 
it accomplishes nothing ; it stands alone ; it has no 
meaning ; it is not to be regarded. But many related 
tones, — music ! Many strokes and colours, — a picture ! 
Many acts, — a life ! There is no such thing as an unre- 
lated thing, except as a mental conception, when it is a 
mere theory, or as a determination of one's life, when it 
is a sin. A man who lives solely for himself has no right 
to live, for life is relation to others. 

What is the eye if it be not in its true relation to the 
body ? Suppose the nerve is paralyzed ; the eye reflects 
images and light just as perfectly, but it is of no use — it 
is not truly an eye now, for it does not fulfill its purpose ; 
it is not in relation. There is danger, but / am not 
warned ; there is an opportunity, but / cannot know it — 
the organ does not communicate with me. Think of 
an eye that with its glance has brought an ecstasy of bliss 
into your life, that to you has been an image of what 
perfection of life might be, that has clouded in sympathy 
with your sorrow, and glowed in response to your joy, — 
157 



158 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIK 



that has been the mirror of your very thoughts. Now 
take it out of its setting and hold it in your hand, and 
look at it, and admire it. Away with it ! It is a horror, 
a monstrosity ! It is not an eye ; it is a wrongs — it is 
wrung out of its place. 

So a life must be in its place ; it must keep in proper 
relation, or it is useless, purposeless, without effect or 
beauty. 

There is often a deep truth in popular proverbs. We 
do not say, <'He works like a wolf." We do not say, 

As busy as a fly," though it would not at times be an 
inapt expression. We do not send the sluggard to the 
cricket, for example, to be taught industry. But we say, 

He works like a beaver " ; As busy as a bee " ; ''Go 
to the ant, thou sluggard." Note that these are all 
animals that live in communities, and take their share of 
related labour. There is a truth in that. So God has 
given us varying gifts, not to be exercised independently, 
but for mutual helpfulness, — "to some, apostles; to 
some, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing" : they form a 
community; they work for the body's sake. If any 
part rebelled, or if all had the same office, where were 
the body ! My will says, " Walk," my feet respond and 
I do walk, — will and feet forming a community of action. 
I command my hand to grasp something, the hand 
responds, and the body is served. 

Let the same principle run out into your social life, 
your church life. Think for others ; let your desire to 
help be a constant goad. Think less of yourself and 
what you want. Don't let things be in your lives what 
the Romans called their baggage, impedimenta, things in 
the way of the foot, always obstructing your truest and 
highest usefulness. Be superior to things. You are a 



W O E K 



159 



servant, a clerk, a seamstress, — what does it matter? 
Work for the common good, the common weal, the com- 
monwealth, as the people of Massachusetts put it, — the 
State, a part of the Nation ! See how far out the ripples 
of your related activity reach ! 

<*But," you say, can it be that my little bit of work, 
in my obscure corner, amounts to that?" O believe 
that it does, just as the cogs and pivots of a watch are 
indispensable to its proper use, and then act on it. Do 
the work you must do, better than ever before ; let your 
work enter into your life. Perhaps you will hear the 
Master say, Thou hast done it well ; try to do it better 
to-morrow." Watch the Master- Workman ; glimpses of 
His work will teach you in time " tricks of the tool's true 
play"; level difficulties as far as you can; clear the 
road for somebody else. 

There are many grades of labour. 

I. First, there is slave labour — for there is still slave 
labour in the land — work that must be done under the 
whip of necessity, under the lash of fear, under the threat 
of loss of place, without hope, without cessation, and 
then — to have the needs of life barely supplied ! When 
Abraham went down into Egypt, he is spoken of as hav- 
ing had so many "souls" with him; now we say so 
many "hands." It does not look like progress, and yet 
we have made progress, for there is now much of labour 
on the second grade, namely, 

II. Work to supply needs, to support and develop 
life, to equip the home, to beautify it, to furnish the 
mind and the aesthetic nature. This is all right and 
proper, and vastly higher than the other, but there is 
great danger of its leading to selfishness — danger that 
the muscles of contraction will be abnormally developed, 



160 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



and the expansors will grow flabby; danger that the 
centripetal will grow unduly strong and the centrifugal 
very faint and weak ; danger that acquisition shall rule 
for acquisition's sake, and not for self-preservation or 
even comfort. It is as if a bird should say, **I have 
built one nest, I guess I will build two. Now, I wonder 
how three would be; or, perhaps, four would be better," 
and — he begins to feather his nests I 

A good way to test how far one may acquire for one's 
self, is to use the try-square, — one arm pointing towards 
God, and one towards man. Does this act honour God ? 
is it fair and kind towards my brother ? This will settle 
many difficulties. Leave yourself out of the reckoning, 
and you will find your life fairly adjusted to all true re- 
lationships. 

III. Then, there is work for work's sake, with no 
thought of any reward it may bring, but just for the 
pleasure of putting your faculties into operation — work 
for the delight there is in it. This is fine ! I pity the 
man who has never experienced it. The absorption that 
would render Archimedes so dead to all around him that 
they could burn his laboratory and he would not know ; 
the delight that draws you on into the hours of the night, 
that makes you wonder where the morning has flown. 
This is delicious ! 

IV. But better still is the feeling that comes over the 
best workers when they review their efforts : '*I was ir- 
ritable to-day, and a little lax ; I will do better to-mor- 
row. I will work so as to help some one else. I will be 
more patient, more serviceable, more thoughtful." 
Then you reach the highest form of work — work for the 
good of others, — for the body's sake. As the eye gives 
warning of danger or opportunity, so be an eye to the 



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161 



body-social ; or a hand reached out in helpfulness ; or 
feet going on errands of thoughtful kindness. As you 
enter into this relation of mutual helpfulness, you learn 
more of the nature of God, who has revealed to us that 
He is ever thinking of us — that He makes all things 
work together for good for us ; He must, for the love of 
God must find expression. Love is never satisfied with 
merely being. But how about that unknowable time 
when we were not, and He had no object on which to 
lavish His love? This is, to my mind, one of the 
strongest arguments for the Trinity. Love is relation, 
and God is love. God is eternal. Love is eternal, but 
creation is not. Therefore, God must have had that in 
Himself which could be an object of love. He must be 
a sodality, a fraternity. 

I bless God that we have grown out of the time when 
a man must be his own forester, his own lumberman, his 
own shoemaker, into the time when men band together 
for mutual helpfulness. The hunter wants vegetables, 
and the farmer does not want to be a vegetarian ; and so 
they make an agreement : — " You bring me venison, and 
I will give you vegetables. You give me good measure, 
and I will give you good measure." But to do this, they 
must be related ; dofk form the bud of a community. 
One is not a community ; both are. We have grown 
out of unity into community. O," you say, " that is 
communism ! " Don't be afraid of that. Communism 
will never rule. The deathlessness of the individual is 
the death of communism. I will repeat that, for in it 
lies the solution of this question of communism, — " The 
deathlessness of the individual is the death of commu- 
nism. ' ' The man who forces himself out of kindly relation 
with his fellow men is really the one who plants the seeds 



162 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



of communism, for he plants dissatisfaction, unrest, a 
sense of injustice. He says, " I will get all I can, and 
give as little as I can. I will buy in a cheap market and 
sell in a dear market. I will pay my employees just as 
little as I can, and still keep them working for me. I'm 
in business to make money. If I don't look out for my- 
self, no one else will look out for me." 

Have you ever gone trout-fishing, and felt as if the 
man who had been there before you ought not to live ? 
He didn't care, so long as he got his mess of fish, who 
came after him. He was looking out for number one, and 
had left everything disordered and trampled and broken. 
No, a community of interests will not bring about 
communism. Did the community build houses and run 
engines and construct ships, to support the house-builder, 
the engineer, the shipwright ; or, did society need roofs 
to cover them, and engines and ships to take their tired 
feet on their way ? Why, the latter, of course. And 
one man especially fitted to build houses, finds employ- 
ment, and at the same time finds his own support ; the 
engineer, the shipwright, the cooper, the lawyer, the 
merchant, find society ready to support them in return 
for whatever of their specialty they give society. 

I met, not long ago, a friend in Baltimore, a native 
Cuban, who said, speaking of an inexcusable fraud which 
had been practiced on the people of the island, Itis not 
only the present injustice of the fraud which troubles me, 
but it is the long years it will take to reestablish confi- 
dence." Some American merchants went down to Cuba, 
and offered excellent articles at fair prices, and then, 
when they had succeeded in persuading the natives to 
invest all their capital, they sent down an article so in- 
ferior in every way, that those small merchants were 



WORK 



163 



ruined. I pleaded that it was not an action of the 
American government, and would be set straight by 
them ; but, ah, it will be so long before there is any con- 
fidence again ! A man who could do that has no idea 
of mutual obligation ; he was living out of relation, out of 
what should have been his social setting, and was simply 
a rascal. 

What does all this mean to you ? This : try to get 
yourselves into sympathetic relations with man ; and not 
only with man, bui; with God, from whom alone the high 
motive comes. 

I owe an apology to Emerson, — 

" The hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
Wrought in a sad sincerity. 
Himself from God he could not free " 

O, I will improve on that, — 

" Himself from God he would not free ! " 

No human soul that has ever known the bliss of that 
copartnership will ever again wish to be free from its 
control. 

I hope that when I am dead I shall be remembered as 
one who worked ! Heaven will be work, relation. As 
Browning has said, — the here is there ; the there is here ; 
not two unrelated existences, but the one a completion 
and development of the other, or, as Tennyson says, no 
less beautifully — 

" And doubtless unto thee is given 
A life that bears immortal fruit 
In such great offices as suit 
The full-grown energies of heaven." 



FRUSTRATING THE GRACE OF GOD 



May those who are rich he given grace to 
divide fairly as good stewards. If we have 
education^ tnay we use it to help others to the 
joy of knowing. ' ' 



FRUSTRATING THE GRACE OF GOD 



I do not frustrate the grace of God'' — Galatians 2 : 21. 



that has been a power for God and His cause? What are 
you doing with it ? Are you adding to the honour al- 
ready gathered round it, or are you traihng it in the 
dust ? The iron is taken from the mine, and smelted 
and refined and made into a tempered blade. It is 
passed from the hand of one hero to another. Hero 
after hero wields it for his country, making it an ever 
more-prized heirloom. At last it falls into the hands of 
a coward and a poltroon, and its glory is departed. I 
think of Ticonderoga and Quebec and Lake Champlain 
and Stillwater; I think of the man whom Washington 
delighted to honour ; and I think how jealousy and am- 
bition dragged the fair name down from its glory. 

But I want to make some definite applications of this 
theme. 

I. There is the grace of letters. Did you ever think 
how much went into the making of books ; what appli- 
cation and experiment and research and long nights of 
weariness and days of toil ; what generations of scholars 
have lived and died and studied that you might have the 
means of acquiring an education ? What use are you 
making of it ? What special line of reading are you 
pursuing ? Do you give your reading-time to the maga- 




E can frustrate — render void or valueless — 
the grace of God. Are there any here who 
bear an historic, honoured name — a name 



167 



168 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



zines and newspapers ? Did you ever notice how yellow 
the papers get if they He in the light? <'0," you say, 
I have no time to read anything more substantial than 
the newspapers ; I must make a living ! " Well, what of 
that? There are other things you must make, too. 
What specialty are you pursuing ? I have a friend who 
has made a special study of botany along the line of 
trees, and he is a most pleasant companion to be with. 
No man can study it all. What are you adding to the 
daily enjoyment of those who love knowledge? Of 
what use to you are your Astronomy and Botany and 
Zoology or anything else you ever studied ? Was it a 
sacrifice for your father and mother to put you through 
school? and was it worth while? Had you ever a 
teacher who urged you to some special endeavour, who 
thought you would be the purple thread in the garment ? 
— and are you ? So far as you are neglecting all this, 
you are frustrating the grace of God in this special form 
of letters. 

We are to worship God with all our minds. The horse 
can do its daily work and so can we ; the bird can rear 
its young ; the beaver can build a dam ; the peacock 
can strut ; the sheep can wear all wool." Wherein do 
we differ ? Do we differ so very much ? Christ said, 
"Is not a man better than a sheep?" We might say, 
" /j- a man better than a sheep? " 

II. I can dwell but a moment on it, but what about 
Sunday ? O how much God's grace means to you in 
this day which frees you from the strain of life ! What 
do you read on Sunday ? What did you read this morn- 
ing? What will probably be your reading this after- 
noon ? What would it almost certainly have been if you 
had not heard this sermon ? Do you give the day up to 



FEUSTEATING THE GEACE OF GOD 169 



social pleasures ? Do you voluntarily increase the labours 
of others ? Do you allow your business to encroach on 
this consecrated time ? Do you frustrate the grace of 
God in your use of this day ? 

III. And there is the grace of citizenship. Consider 
what contests with feudal barons and powerful popes, 
what suspense and torture, what stakes and fagots, what 
expatriation and loneliness lie behind your privileges of 
free thought and self-government. Are you doing what 
you can to conserve them ? Do you always attend the 
primary in your district ? You say it is of no use. It is 
of use ; it is your responsibility as a citizen under a Re- 
public. Do you say, " Good men never go into poli- 
tics ' ' ? That is not so. But when they have gone in, 
I have never noticed any special commotion among those 
who cry for purity in politics. Your individual in- 
fluence may not seem to count. You may not elect your 
candidate, but you do set in motion principles and es- 
tablish aims that lift popular thought to a higher level. 
And if you neglect the duties which come to you as a 
citizen, you frustrate, as far as in you lies, the grace of 
God in this free nation. 

IV. And, ah, the grace of God that comes to us in 
loss and bereavement and loneliness and disappointment 
and defeat and distress ! Is the grace of God in this ? 
Yes, yes, — a kind of grace He can bestow in no other 
way ; for the gardener is always kind. He is kind when 
he prunes and lops and uproots and hangs away in the 
dark cellar. If plants had life like us, I know not what 
the result would be. If the rose-bush, as it felt the 
tender sprouts being cut away, could draw back and say, 

He is taking my grace and beauty from me," and so 
shrink into itself, and let its juices dry up and shrivel, 



170 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



all his work would go for naught. But the rose-bush 
cannot do that, and so it must develop as the gardener 
plans ; and the life dammed back in one place comes out 
in fruit in another. If only we would submit ourselves 
to the Gardener ! Loss and bereavement are to draw us 
closer to Him and to the home where our treasures, or 
the fruit of them, have anticipated us; loneliness is to 
develop the power of communion with God ; disappoint- 
ment is to lead us to rest in His all-sufficiency. There is, 
therefore, no disappointment to them that are in Christ 
Jesus ; defeat is to show us our own weakness and His 
exceeding strength, and distress should teach us to rest 
in the everlasting arms. O, submit yourself to Him ! 
Let Him develop the grace He can bestow upon you in no 
other way ! Let Him decide what fruit you are to bear, 
and when and how ! You may not see it now, but in 
that other home your eyes shall be opened, and you shall 
see the fruit of 'a life submitted to His guiding. 

V. And I must not close until I warn you of the 
danger of frustrating God's grace in salvation. You can 
do this. The more I see of men, the more I am con- 
vinced that this is possible. You cannot frustrate His 
justice or His laws ; you may delay or hinder, but not 
defeat His power. But His grace He seems to have put 
at the command of our wills ; and to me it is an awful 
thing to refuse it — awful that we can do it. I beseech 
you by the disappointments of the past, and the fear and 
uncertainty of the future — that future which seems like a 
fog into which you are inevitably rushing ; by your early 
memories ; by the gladness of a life that succeeds, to ac- 
cept God's grace. And if you have accepted it, and yet 
have fallen and been defeated, and have dishonoured 
His cause, take up His banner again, and let it lead you 



FEUSTRATING THE GRACE OF GOD 171 



into victory ! You can do this ; you and God can do 
anything ! 

Do you remember those lines of Herbert, where he 
says that God has given us parents and teachers and 
helps and providences all the way to lead us to Himself, 
and how one bosom sin destroys the power of them all ? 
O, root it out ! and let the grace of God have free 
course and be glorified. The light streams to us from 
undreamed-of spaces ; it journeys over hill and dale to 
fall upon our face, and we drop the fringed curtain of 
our eyes and lose it all. I beseech you as the ambassador 
of Christ that you open out your soul, and let Him come 
in and possess you, and develop you in all things by His 
grace ! 



ATONEMENT 



" May some one^ who has come in here indiffer- 
enty go out a changed man^ as he passes under 
the hand of the miracle-working God.^^ 



ATONEMENT 



«« Behold the Lamb of God^ that taketh away the sin of the 
world.''— ]oim l: 29. 

DON'T you suppose that John the Apostle, as 
in his old age he wrote this gospel, looked 
back through the mist of years, and thought 
of that gesture of the Baptist, as he pointed out the Man 
who was to so influence his life ! John the Baptist was 
probably the greatest and certainly the saddest man of 
his generation. He had a passion for righteousness; 
and such natures, by an inevitable attraction, draw hun- 
gering souls to them. When a man is *<far ben" (as 
the Scotch say) others follow him. With this passion for 
righteousness surging in him, John could not rest till he 
was right with God, and until he set others right. He 
spoke, out to soldier, publican, Pharisee, — yes, and you 
Scribe ! He laid the axe to the root of the tree. He 
did not speak of the leaves, and wonder what could be 
done for this one and that one; the whole tree was 
diseased. He did not deal with this sin and that one, 
but the whole life, ruined and weakened by sin, must be 
renewed and redeemed by sacrifice. 

When a man preaches about sin he must preach 
directly. The Bible speaks directly ; there is no con- 
fusion of thought. Let me tell you my idea of sin.—. 
The most glorious thing a man can do is to yield his will 
to God, to merge his personality into God's. Sin is the 
reverse of this ; it is not defect, it is defection ; not de- 
ficiency, but alienation, rebellion, treason ! How the 
175 



176 FEAGMEI^^TS THAT EEMAIN 



college days come back! That line of Ovid : **I saw 
the good, and approved, and — chose the wrong ! " 
There it is — I chose the wrong. I may turn from the 
good with reluctance, but I do turn. I may be uneasy 
and restless in ray choice, but I do choose. It is a 
definite act of the will. 

Now, how to get at the root of sin. We talk of model 
tenements and sanitary plumbing and a living wage, and 
many more plans of modern philanthropy ; but these do 
not touch the disease of sin. They are only the equali- 
zation of opportunities between man and man. It is fit- 
ting that I look after the rights of my fellows ; that I see, 
as far as I am in sociological touch with them, that they 
have time for rest, for recreation, for thought. But sin 
needs far more radical treatment ; — let us not fall into 
confusion of moral distinctions. Back in the time of 
Isaiah, God said, Woe unto them that call evil good, 
and good evil ; that put darkness for light and light for 
darkness ; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." 
And He said so because of the confusion of thought 
caused by such moral contradictions. Sin is the sub- 
version of all moral order; and sin can be met only by 
salvation. 

Let us now consider salvation. We must try to think 
ourselves back into John's day, and realize how his 
hearers felt when they heard him say, Behold the Lamb 
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world ! " What 
did that mean to them ? The lamb slain — the morning 
and evening sacrifice — was as familiar to them as the 
communion is to us, and must have conveyed to the 
dullest some idea of expiation. I do not know how they 
felt in the twilight, for I was not born in the twilight, but 
in the full day ; yet I am sure that if I had brought an 



ATONEMENT 



177 



innocent little lamb to the priest, and had stood with my 
hand on its head confessing my sins, and then had seen that 
life taken, something in me would have surely made me 
hate the sins that needed that sacrifice. And, possibly, 
as John spoke, a flock of sheep passed by, destined for 
the. Temple, and the meaning of it all suddenly found 
expression as he said, " Behold the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world ! " I am so glad that 
the emphasis can be put in only one place, if it be read 
naturally. You cannot say, " Behold the Lamb of God ! " 
It must be, "The Lamb of God,'' It is God's Lamb; 
it is God's love that provided Him. ** God so loved the 
world ! " There have been, there may be yet, some 
souls who think that Christ can be approached more 
easily than God ; some, perhaps, who think that His ex- 
altation is so great that Mary must be invoked, — surely, 
her womanly heart will pity. Or, if her austere holiness 
seems forbidding, some good man or woman who has 
earned the name of saint, will intercede. 

O, God is Love ! He is not a tyrant whom Christ is 
winning over to our side : — " I say not, * I will pray the 
Father for you,' for the Father Himself loveth you ! " 
He is not a being who needs to be placated. Can a 
mother forget her child ? Yes, she may. Yet will I not 
forget you, saith the Lord of hosts. He does not want 
us to live in fear of Him, and wonder continually how 
we shall prove to Him that we would serve Him. " Shall 
I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " 

Abraham wondered how he could prove that God had 
his heart wholly. He saw other men causing their chil- 
dren to pass through the fire — he saw them offered to 
Moloch. Was there no way in which he could show that 
he, too, put his God first ? Could he not sacrifice his 



178 FEAGMEl^TS THAT EEMAIK 



only child for God — his son of promise ? At last the 
call comes to him, Take thy son ; slay him for Me ! " 
O, it must have cut him to the heart when the boy said 
to him, " My father, behold the fire and the wood, but 
where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?" Abraham 
answered, ''My son, God will provide Himself a lamb." 
And God did ; He always does ; you need not look about 
for the sacrifice and wonder how sin is to be set straight. 
At the needed moment Abraham saw a ram caught in 
the thicket. It was all a type. Behold the Lamb of 
God, caught in the thickets of this world, ofi"ered for you, 
and offered by a Father's love. 

I do not understand the Atonement, and it is not neces- 
sary that I should. But I believe and accept it, and that 
makes it operative for me. The man who has the most 
perfect and satisfactory theory of the atonement — fair to 
God and just to man — is not saved by his theory, but by 
his faith in God's love, and the yielding of his will to it. 
All the laws of God's universe need obedience, not under- 
standing, to unlock their power for us. Be obedient to 
the law, and you get its results ; and the ignorant man 
gets these as truly as the learned. The very wise pro- 
fessor in the college eats bread, and — so does the janitor ! 
Both are nourished by it, irrespective of their relative 
knowledge of the laws that govern the assimilation of 
food. Laws need obedience, not theory. 

But I have a theory. Illustrations are always weak, 
and I feel that I should apologize for using them to set 
forth these unspeakable spiritual truths; and yet I 
must ; I have no other way. In the Atonement, as it 
seems to me, God must accomplish two things — He must 
vindicate His government (for He is a King), and He 
must win my will ; He must take that inner citadel of 



ATONEMENT 



179 



my nature. How can He, without violating my freedom ? 
Now, for my illustration. — Suppose I had a father who 
was most tenderly attached to me ; suppose, too, that he 
was a judge; suppose, again, that I had willfully out- 
raged his love in every shameless and inconceivable way, 
had trampled on his love ruthlessly, and had at last com- 
mitted a robbery, which came within his circuit, and was 
brought before him for sentence. It is his boy. He 
loves me. He yearns over me. He would give his very 
life for me ! But he cannot set me free out of hand. He 
has obligations. He represents more than fatherhood. 
He stands for law and order; he stands for government, 
and these claims are not to be disregarded. So he con- 
demns me to pay a sum which I simply cannot pay (and 
which he knows I cannot), or, as an alternative, submit 
to an imprisonment, which, if it be not for life, will still 
ruin that life by stultifying my manhood and checking 
my development. If I could pay the fine I should be 
free. He could pay it, but it would impoverish him.. 
Kf/ ke does / And when he goes out a ruined man, I 
know at last how he loves me. He goes out a ruined 
man, but he goes out with my hand in his, and my 
heart and will fully surrendered to him — he has won his 
son ! 

So, in some sense, I think God deals with us in the 
Atonement. He wins our love and will — that I know ; 
He vindicates His moral government — that I know ; 
how He does it, I do not know, nor do I care to pry into 
the secrets the Father hath kept in His own power. I 
want to believe and love Him, for so the law of Atone- 
ment becomes effective for me. O, my brother, yield 
to His love ! 

Spurgeon was once invited to speak in the Crystal 



180 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Palace, London ; and, fearing that his voice would not 
fill such an immense space, he went before the service to 
try it. Into what he supposed to be the empty vastness 
of the building, he sent the message of our text, — " Be- 
hold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the 
world." Satisfied with the result, became away. Years 
afterwards, he received a letter from a man who said that 
he had on that day been working on a high scaffolding, 
and had heard the great message coming to him when he 
thought himself utterly alone ; that he had not been able 
to free himself from the power with which it had taken 
hold of him ; and that now he would not free himself, 
for he had accepted the great sacrifice, and knew what 
God's forgiveness meant. 

If I could feel that, by pointing out this afternoon the 
Lamb of God, I had been the means of bringing one 
soul, who had not known Him, into loving relations with 
a loving God, my heart would be filled with deep joy and 
thankfulness that I had been again permitted to preach 
the unsearchable riches of Christ. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 



Help us, O Lord, to be Just and generous 
those who are not 'just our kind.* " 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 



" And ye shall be witnesses unto Me^ both in Jerusalem^ and in 
Judeuy and in Samariay and unto the uttermost part of the earth," 
— Acts. i;8. 

I WANT to preface my remarks on this subject of 
Foreign Missions with five premises. 
I. God is Love. We have learned or are learn- 
ing this great truth, but to millions no such thought has 
ever come. Children are born into hopelessness, and 
live hopeless lives, and die hopeless deaths, because to 
them has never come the knowledge of Jesus, — the love 
of God incarnate. 

II. God loves all men. Do we believe that ? — that 
He loves a Hottentot, a Chinaman, a little Indian pa- 
poose, — that He really and truly loves them ? Why, we 
are behind the times of Samuel ! We are looking only 
on the outward appearance, but when God looks on a 
man He sees a divine possibility. 

III. He has given us a commission. There must be 
no question as to whether we approve or disapprove of 
missions. We have His command and we must obey. 
When an officer commanded a private to do a certain 
duty, and the private answered, Sir, it is impossible ! " 
he was met with — I did not ask for your opinion, but 
for your obedience." We have then our commission — 
"In Jerusalem (city missions), and in Judea (home mis- 
sions), and in Samaria (Samaria — what does that mean ? 
Why, the people of your special aversion, as the Samari- 
tans were to these people. To you it means Jews or 

183 



184 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Italians or Chinamen. It means whoever excites, not 
your sympsithy but your ^zpathy or your antipathy), and 
to the outermost rim of the inhabited earth" {foreign 
missions). 

IV. God has blessed us out of all proportion to our 
devotion. We have received to divide. In our Presby- 
terian Church (which is not behind in this matter) we 
give, counting by individuals, two cents a week — less 
than a carfare a fortnight ; by families, much less — and 
this, to carry on a work to which we have agreed by 
most solemn covenant, and by our love to Christ, and by 
our hopes of eternal salvation ! Do we really pray 

Thy kingdom come " ? Do we ever think it, and 
mean it at all, when we say it ? We say it daily ; but if 
we prayed it, would we not do more for it ? 

And yet see what great things God has done in an- 
swer to our listless prayers and meagre gifts. Sixteen 
years ago there was not one Christian man in Korea ; 
now they do not count by individuals, — there are over 
three hundred self-supporting churches there. They 
seem to have caught the apostolic spirit, and as soon as 
the truth comes to them, they plan to support a man who 
may carry it to the surrounding communities. It is lit- 
erally like leaven, working out in every direction. It 
was once said, " If I could see a Hindu really and truly 
a Christian, I could believe anything. If I could see a 
Chinaman a Christian, I could accept any miracle." Yet 
India counts her converts by the hundred-thousands, and 
China contains more Christians now than the whole 
world contained at the end of the first century of the 
Christian Era. 

Missions are not defeated by these disasters in China. 
Again the blood of the martyrs may be the seed of the 



FOEEIGN MISSIONS 



185 



church. A young man just out of the seminary, defending 
his mission-house, was called on to deny the truth of Christ. 
He refused, and when they had beaten him with bamboo 
rods until he was nearly speechless, they said, "Will 
you deny Him now ? " And when he answered faintly, 
**Not Jesus /^^ they beat him into jelly. Doesn't such 
heroism fire you to emulation ! Paton, the veteran mis- 
sionary to the New Hebrides, was told that it was useless 
to go ; the people were cannibals, and he would only lose 
his life ; but he said, It is decreed that worms shall at 
last eat my body if I die a natural death. If in pursu- 
ance of my Master's call, it is eaten by men, that is not 
my concern; " — and he has changed the whole charac- 
ter and hfe of the islands. 

The missionaries that escaped the danger are not dis- 
couraged ; they strain at the leash to return. Why do 
they want to? They are educated men and women, 
graduates of Yale, Bryn Mawr, Hamilton, and I know 
not what other colleges ; they are fitted to enjoy as we 
are — why, the love of Christ constraineth them ! They 
want to go back and build up the waste places. Can't 
we at least do one act of kindness and self-sacrifice every 
day ? 

V. Now, look at it from the point of fairness. The 
Chinese have two-thousand miles of coastline, and not 
one port which they can use without the consent of some 
foreign power. Every nation of Europe is claiming some 
part of that empire, even little Belgium and Denmark. 
Don't you suppose that if any foreign power claimed the 
New England coast, and another Pennsylvania, and so on 
down to Florida, I, a minister of the gospel, would make 
some other than a verbal protest in defense of the land 
of my birth, the land for which my fathers fought ? 



186 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Their bean-oil trade has been ruined by the introduc- 
tion of foreign oils ; our threads have supplanted theirs, 
and the looms of the old women stand idle ; our steam- 
ers, plying up and down the coast and through the rivers, 
have destroyed their carrying trade, and thousands of 
coolies are out of work. We have driven our railroads 
and telegraphs straight through their cemeteries and their 
prejudices ! 

Now, what are we to do? Carry them the gospel. 
That only will adjust things. If missionaries from 
southern Europe had not gone and preached to the 
ancient Picts and Scots and Danes, we should not be 
Christians. The same objections were in force then, — 
their work was needed at home ; it was useless, and so 
forth. But they went, and you and I were born Chris- 
tians. When my little baby eyes first opened, I looked 
into the face of a woman, I lay on the breast of a 
woman, I was cared for by a woman to whom I owe all 
that is best in me, and who as a girl, a wife, a mother, 
found her life in Jesus Christ. But millions of children 
are born who have no such motherhood around them, 
and we must give it to them. We are stewards of this 
blessing ; let us as stewards divide rightly. 

*<But," you say, Christianity is revolutionary, and 
will cause trouble." It is revolutionary. They that 
have turned the world upside down are come hither 
also; — but the world is already wrong side up, and 
Christianity adjusts. 

Now, do you accept my premises, — that God loves all 
men ; that He has given us a commission which we have 
no choice but to obey ; that He has blessed us out of all 
proportion to our devotion ; and, lastly, that it is only 
fair to share our good things? " No, I don't I " Well, 



FOEEIGN MISSIONS 



187 



then, dismiss the matter wholly from your mind as a bad 
dream ; don't let it give you any uneasiness ; shake it 
off and go out ; wrap the robes of your selfishness around 
you, and enjoy yourself for yourself; and at last go to 
your grave, and sink into oblivion ! But, if you do ac- 
cept the premises, then what is the conclusion ? AVhy, 
give of your time, your effort, your prayers, your money, 
for the rebuilding of the world. We shall probably re- 
ceive an indemnity from China for the destruction wrought 
in our missions, and it is right that we should. But give 
now, and let the work go on without delay, and if the 
indemnity come, let it be used for expansion. 

Keep your feet on the solid ground of reality, and 
do something tangible. Do His will ; don't suffer it. 
You are the light of the world ] — then shine ! Light 
that is covered is not light, for men still walk in dark- 
ness. You are the salt of the earth. If it be covered 
up, it not only loses its savor, but, worse yet, destroys its 
reason for being, since it is a preservative. Put your- 
selves at the decaying points of social life and stop the 
putrefaction. Because past generations have not done 
all that they might, that is only an additional reason why 
we should do all we possibly can. During the last 
century the Church has been roused to the importance 
of this work; it should have been going on since the 
first century. Let us do our part now ! 



LIVING STONES 



" Keep us patient under the school lessons that 
are fitting us for a larger life. May we do our 
present duty so that it develops a heavenly beauty. 
Help us to realize that the tools we are using 
now are creating the skill that will make the 
new set useful in our hands. May ill-health 
develop the patience and sympathy which are 
the perfect health of the soul — a present limita- 
tion for future development.''^ 



LIVING STONES 



"1^ also as living slones, are built up a spiritual house — 
I Peter 2:5. 

CHRIST is the great foundation stone. He is 
the living stone, chosen of God and precious. 
None can displace Him. But He says to Peter : 
Thou art Rock, and on this Rock will I build My 
Church," and Peter formed the first layer on that great 
foundation-stone. Special honour was given to him, 
that he should stand, to the whole Jewish and Gentile 
world, as Christ stood to him. 

But we, too, form part of the wondrous foundation,—, 
ye also are living stones. Do you know of any life on 
which yours has rested when faith was giving way, when 
burdens too heavy to be borne were pressing on you ? 
Do you remember any who were as foundation-rocks to 
you, because through their steadfastness you realized the 
steadfastness of Christ on whom they rested ? Have you 
been such a support to any other life ? You should be, 
for the Church of Christ is built up, layer by layer, of 
living stones that support each other and rest on Christ. 

This explains both duty and discipline. You have one 
calling in this life, — the unselfish giving of your lives to 
others ; implanting and keeping alive faith in their hearts, 
forgetting yourselves utterly. And you need discipline. 
If you are to support other lives, you may need just the 
crook your present pain is developing to fit into the 
crook of those other lives where they need help. Some 
sorrow in your life may bring the knowledge that will be 
191 



192 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



the prop to some other soul, drooping under sorrow, and 
you may be the only one who can help that soul. Just 
as in a carpenter- shop an old stick of wood, gnarled and 
crooked, is set aside as useless now but possibly useful 
later. At last some special work is to be done, and that 
piece and that only (with its curious crook) can be used. 
Or, to revert to the figure of our text, some peculiarly 
shaped stone will be needed to fit into a corner developed 
in the exigencies of building. Isn't it worth while to 
bear the pain if, by it, you become part of the great tiers 
of His great edifice ? 



GOD'S PLAN 



** May we reach into the depths of that mans 
faith who said, What shall separate us from 
the love of Christ! I am persuaded that 
neither death nor life nor angels nor princi- 
palities nor powers nor any other creature can 
come between Him and me.'^ 



GOD'S PLAN 



" For we know that all things work together for good to those 
who love Godf to those who are called according to His purposed 
—Romans 8 : 28. 

" f I those who love God "—enter that door if 
I you will; "to those who are called accord- 
JL ing to His purpose," or to those who pur- 
pose according to His call ' ' (it can be read as correctly 
one way as the other), — surely, you can enter that door ! 
Or, if you want an abundant entrance, swing open the 
whole two-leaved door and enter I Do you feel un- 
equal to the demands of the life hid with Christ in God ? 
The Spirit helpeth our infirmities. The vague longings 
in your heart for which you find no expression are the 
Spirit's voiceless intercessions in your behalf. 

The new life will demand self-denial. It may demand 
the giving up of health, for health is not always a first 
consideration. You may have to lay down your life to 
build up the kingdom of God. You may have to lay it 
down all at once, or perhaps give it up, little by little, 
through a long lifetime. Don't be penurious with God. 
A candle burns away as it gives lights and He is pledged 
to make all things work together for good — for God- 
likeness — to them that love Him. Through all the 
vicissitudes of life, God never loses sight of His far and 
final purpose. 

But all things ? Yes, Paul says it. 

Ill-health? that obstacle, that hindrance, that clog? 
Yes, I cannot say ''No" when Paul says '' ^7// things." 

My sins ? Ah, now my certainty falters. My sins, 
195 



196 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



my mistakes, my slips ? Yes, I cannot discount the 
promise. Paul says so, and Paul knew ! 

And is it so strange ? We work in the same way. 
Out of the refuse of the coal-tar products we make the 
brilliant aniline dyes and exquisite perfumes that ravish 
the senses. We do it, and shall not God ! 

This is the meaning of discipline. Take the illustra- 
tion of the watch — wheels moving against each other. 
If they all moved in one direction the motion and the use 
were gone ! It is their interaction and opposition that 
make it a watch. And so difficulties and disappoint- 
ments and distress and failures are God's pivots and 
teeth and cogs by which He perfects His splendid con- 
spiracy that all things shall work together for our good. 
How does He do it? I don't know. Does He do it? 
Yes, that I know, and so do you. 

Do God the justice and yourself the kindness to trust 
Him now where you cannot trace Him. That is your 
chance now ; and now is your only chance to do that. 
In that other life you will serve Him in many ways, but 
there will be no need or chance to trust Him, for we 
shall see Him as He is. Only here can we walk by faith. 

Through all the discipline He will protect you. His 
defenses are insuperably impregnable. " (That is surely 
either Johnson or Carlyle. I delight in one sentence of 
Carlyle. After the destruction of his manuscript of 
"The French Revolution," that work of years, he writes 
to a friend, I have digested my misery.") 

You speak of cross-purposes. Think over that for a 
moment. He that spared not His own Son, but delivered 
Him up for us all, how shall He not make all things work 
together for good to us ? 

Will you say any more about " cross-purposes " ? 



NOT WORDS BUT DEEDS 



/ 



" Help us to be careful of ourselves ^ hut not too 
careful^ not selfish. May we take care of our 
healthy yet use that health for Thee^ 



NOT WORDS BUT DEEDS 



" And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say 
unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
my brethren, ye have done it unto — Matt. 25 : 40. 

THE temples and palaces of worship erected by 
man will fall and cease to be, but never true 
work done for Him whom we worship. Don't 
be afraid of doing too much in His service. When the 
Master comes to reward His servants, won't you be glad 
to have a headache or a backache invested ? 

A church has no right to exist except to gather power 
which it is to distribute to others. We as a church have 
no right to exist unless we realize the need all about us 
and reach out our arms to help. We should be a blood- 
making engine, sending the life-current into all the chan- 
nels around. 

I do not now call you to j-^^-sacrifice. That may 
come, but has not come yet. I call on you now to give, 
and so send a representative ; but that is not self-sacri- 
fice. By the measure of your Lord's sacrifice for you, I 
urge you to give. Does He say, Freely ye have re- 
ceived, freely enjoy " ? O, no ; freely give ! 

Either we or our representatives must go to every 
place where men need Him, for there Jesus would go ; 
and He called His disciples unto Him and sent them 
forth into all places whither He would Himself come. 
So we meet here with our Lord to receive His commis- 
sion, and then to go out wherever He would go. Where 
do you think He would go ? To those in sorrow ? Then 
199 



200 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



do you go and try to comfort those in sorrow ; He will 
teach you how. 

O yes, I remember what Goldsmith says in the Vicar 
of Wakefield," ** Premature consolation is only a re- 
minder of grief ; ' ' but never mind, you will learn how 
to bring true consolation if you go as the forerunner. 

The work of the Church in this age is to convert the 
abstract into the concrete. Not theology or philosophy 
is what the Lord wants, but a response to His commands. 
He commands our service, and service done for one of 
His little ones He regards as done for Himself. He has 
left us an example. Even on the cross He thought for 
others. 

No expression of love for Him can take the place of 
the actual doing of His will. Do we not all sympathize 
with Kipling's demand that a man be tested by what he 
has done ? I think I need hardly apologize for quoting 
from " Tomlinson." You know the poem. Tomlinson 
had lived the ordinary life of the ordinary man of his 
day, and he died, 

« And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds 
the key. 

* Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high 
The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to 

die — 

The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone ! * 
And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed 
bone. 

The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife, 
And Tomlinson took up his tale, and spoke of his good in life. 

* This have I read in a book,' he said, * and that was told to me. 
And this I have thought that another man thought of a Prince in 

Muscovy.' 

******* 



NOT WOEDS BUT DEEDS 



201 



And Peter twirled the jangling keys in weariness and wrath. 

« Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought,' he said, * and 

the tale is yet to run : 
By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer — what 

ha' ye done ? ' 

* « * * * * « 

And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed 
bone." 

Our Lord commissions us to do something for Him. 
Ye are members of the body of Christ. I want to pick 
up that book. The head flashes the command to the 
hand, but the hand does not move. What does this mean ? 
I see a physician, and he says, " Incipient paralysis," 
and all that can possibly be done is done to effect a cure. 
But how about us ? When the Spirit of Jesus Christ lays 
His commands upon us, do we always respond ? If we do 
not, the members are not obeying the dictate of the 
Head, and to the degree that we fail our spiritual life is 
paralyzed. 



SERVICE 



" We thank Thee for Thy great gift, 
we go on some unusual errand for Thee.^ 



SERVICE \/ 



« Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that 
I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am bap- 
tized with ? They say unto Him, We are able.'' — Matt. 20 : 22. 

THEY knew not what they asked, but, surely, 
had they known, they would still have asked 
and dared to take. They said, " We are 
able," and though they did not understand Him, they 
spoke truly according to their own understanding. It is 
the men who say, We can,'^ who do. They attain their 
end, though perhaps by as unexpected a path as James 
and John, one of whom went to his seat in the kingdom 
by swift martyrdom, and the other through the martyr- 
dom of a long life. 

Here are two paths before me, — Self and Service. 
This I would like to take, but that is the path of advance- 
ment in the kingdom. How shall I decide ? Shall Self 
have the right of way, or Service? O, give out your 
life I By whatever charm of manner you have, by what- 
ever political power, by whatever social influence, move 
the world forward and leave it your debtor ! Earn your 
living incidentally, but serve God fundamentally. Di- 
minuendo will be written over the music of your life if its 
motif be self-seeking. 

" To sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine 
to give " ; — and what Christ said He meant literally. 
He was not speaking out of His humiliation, but as the 
representative of God, and He said that He could not 
give them the seats of power and influence. And God 
205 



206 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



cannot. He gives us life and salvation and opportuni- 
ties, but the use we make of them, and the goal we reach, 
depend on ourselves, and on our own voluntary coopera- 
tion with Him. 



II 

TALKS PREPARATORY TO COM- 
MUNION 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD 



May we live so much in Thy presence and 
catch so much of Thy Spirit — the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ — that^ though we may not want 
to say much about it^ it will yet be true that for 
us to live is Christ. 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD 



" Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver : in 
whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.** — 2 CoR. i : lo. 

I SUPPOSE it has happened to you often, as it has to 
me, that a strain of music, a melody, will sing 
itself over and over in your mind, consciously and 
subconsciously all the day long, fitting itself into the 
work and the pleasure and the burden and the sorrows 
and the joys of the day, — braiding itself in and out of all 
the experiences that come to you, interweaving them into 
a beautiful whole. This is the exquisite pleasure of a 
symphony, where the motif is often repeated, and hear- 
ing it over and over again, recurring and again recurring, 
it gets itself enunciated, sounded outy into your life. 

Now, the gospel is just such a strain of music — linking 
past, present and future into a perfect harmony under 
the uniting motif oiiht power and the love of God. 

I want to call your attention to one of Paul's experi- 
ences, when he looked back to a great suffering which 
had come to him, so great that he despaired of life, and 
said, " But He did deliver ; He doth deliver ; yea, I am 
persuaded that He will deliver ! " Here was Paul, fac- 
ing some trouble so great that he was weighted above 
measure, above endurance, almost to the breaking-point. 
The pressure was so great that he thought he could not 
live through it ; he despaired even of life, and, as he ex- 
pressed it, "we had the sentence of death in ourselves." 
This Greek word translated sentence " means a judg- 
211 



212 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



ment pronounced in court, by a judge ; and Paul uses it 
in this sense, and uses it only this once, because of the 
extremity to which he was here brought. It is used 
only this once in the whole Bible. He says, ** When I 
stood face to face with the conditions of my life, and 
was asked what the outcome was to be — if I could get 
through it — I saw only one answer, ' I cannot ; I must 
die.' But I did get through it ! He did deliver, even 
out of that ! He doth deliver ; He is delivering me even 
now ; yea, I am not afraid as I face the future — I am 
persuaded that He will deliver ! " — accounting that God 
was able even to raise him from the dead, if he were still 
needed here — as God almost did, in this case. 

I want you to take this man and this verb,- Paul and 
deliver as paradigms for your lives — paradigm, an ex- 
ample drawn from the past, — and see what strength and 
comfort you can get from them. 

A picture comes to my mind. There is a wreck olf in 
the ocean, and between the wreck and the shore is a life- 
boat. I am in it. I look back to the wreck, and say, 
"That was an awful ordeal; we were pressed out of 
measure ; we despaired of life ; but we got through it — 
He did deliver ! " Now I look towards the shore and I 
draw in my breath sharply — Oh, that was a great 
billow, and the life-boat is small ; but He carried us 
over, and we are safe — He doth deliver ! " And now I 
look ahead calmly. There are more billows to come, 
more to be met, but the life- boat is strong. I shall reach 
the shore safely — He will deliver ! 

Now I see another picture. I see Christian in the 
Pilgrim's Progress, standing outside the City of De- 
struction. He is looking back — *<Ah, He did deliver 
me ! " I wonder if there is any one here who has not 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD 



213 



yet wakened up to the need of deliverance. Christian 
was in that city a long time before he knew he needed 
help. If any one here does not realize his danger, O 
that I could sound the alarm clear and loud in his heart ! 
For such a man I can do nothing but pray earnestly that 
he may be utterly miserable till he finds out what a 
dangerous position he is in \ till he gets where Christian 
was, and can look back and exclaim, He did deliver 
me ! " But how about the Slough of Despond and 
Apollyon and the Valley of the Shadow of Death ? How 
about them ? — why, He doth deliver I And what is 
this ? Am I on the Delectable Mountains ? Do I in- 
deed see the gates of the City ? Yes, I do, I do / — He 
will yet deliver ! 

Do you look back to some sorrow, some pain, so 
awful, so heart-rending, that you despaired of life? Did 
He not deliver ? Are you in the midst of great pres- 
sure now, and are you cast down ? O, by the memory 
of His former goodness, I pledge you that He doth deliver ; 
and soon in the joy of your heart you will cry, " Yea, 
and He will deliver ! " 

And the God who will deliver will carry you right over 
death. Don't fear it. He is the God of the Resur- 
rection. And the God of the Resurrection is the same 
as the God of the re-surging, — the surging back and 
forth of your life-current. He has carried you over 
many billows already. He lets you die daily. The life 
surges away and you sleep ; you are in a state of com- 
plete unconsciousness. As you approach the condition 
of sleep, you can rouse yourself with a start, and say, 
" There, I was nearly asleep ! " But you never can say, 
" I am asleep " — for when that is to be said, you are 
gone. And when you sleep, you rest quietly back in the 



214 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Everlasting Arms, which are always underneath, and the 
Lord keeps your life-current surging and resurging, and 
when He is ready, He wakes you up, here or there, 
wherever He may need you. The God of the resurging 
and of the Resurrection are one. Trust Him utterly. 
Dare to face the future without a tremour. Dare to 
throw down the gauntlet to your God ! 

People have told me that they like my preaching be- 
cause I do not preach doctrine. I do, but I cover up 
the dry bones and do not let them stick through the 
flesh, nor let the ugly skeleton show. But I mean to- 
night to show you three of the naked bones — three of the 
strong underlying doctrines — the rocky ribs of our 
Christian faith. 

He did deliver us from sin — " Who His own self bare 
our sins in His own body on the tree"; ''By whose 
stripes we are healed"; ''Who was delivered for our 
offenses " ; " Who gave Himself for our sins." " There 
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus," — that is Justification. I will repeat a 
sentence I may have used before : God forgives us once 
as a Judge, but constantly as a Father ; never but once 
do we stand before Him as Judge. 

He doth deliver us from sin, day by day. He doth 
conform me unto His heavenly kingdom. Every day, 
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, I am 
changed into the same image. That is Sanctification, 

He will deliver. " Father, I will that they also whom 
Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they 
may behold My glory " ; "I will come again and receive 
you unto Myself"; "Where I am, there shall also My 
servant be." That is Glorification. 

Justification, sanctification, glorification ! Justification, 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD 



215 



that is, in Christ ; sanctification, that is, like Christ ; 
glorification, that is, with Christ. And we see all three 
in this supper. In remembrance of Me," This is My 
body which is broken for you " — there is justification. 
You are in Christ. The Father looks on you, and sees 
His Beloved Son, and you as in Him, joined to Him, and 
<*4ie that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit," and there- 
fore justified. 

*'This do''— this do. Do what? Why, this, and 
this, and this, and everything. That is the meaning of 
His command. He took the most ordinary event of your 
daily life, and He said, "Do this for Me"— could He 
have meant anything but, Do this and all else for Me " ? 
I often wish we observed one custom of the pristine 
church— that instead of saying, Will you ask a bless- 
ing ? " we might break bread in His name — the head of 
the family taking the bread, and amid silence and loving 
remembrance of Christ's great sacrifice, each member 
breaking off a piece of it. Do not think you can serve 
the Lord here unless that service shows in every act of 
your life. Do what your Master did. Be a blessing 
to every one you meet through the day. Take hold of 
the hand of Christ ; walk arm in arm with Him, and let 
your life be the expression of His. I hope He will grant 
us to-night, and on Sunday as we commune with Him, 
the special blessing which He means us to receive through 
the Communion, and then send us out to do this and all 
things for Him. Then shall we be transformed into His 
image, and that is sanctification. 

"Till He come" — there is glorification. He will de- 
liver. O this glorious hope ! We may not die ; we 
may be lifted up, caught up into the air, and so be for- 
ever with the Lord. This is the beautiful promise which 



216 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



the Father hath kept in His own power, but holds before 
us all as a glorious hope. Through all ages He en- 
courages His church with this, the blessed hope of the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, 
Jesus Christ. O if He would only come ! He will 
come ! Perhaps, before I die ; perhaps, to-night ! And 
to be with Him, when He shall have delivered us from all 
that makes it hard to live — that is glorification ! 

Why do we have this feast ? Because it commemorates 
a great event. We do not commemorate a failure. 
Why do we keep the Fourth of July ? Because it tells of 
the birth of a glorious independence. Why do we cele- 
brate Washington's Birthday? Because of a noble life 
nobly lived, and a great work accomplished. We could 
not suitably commemorate the Panama or Nicaragua 
Canal, because it is not yet carried through — it is in the 
air. It must be a success before commemoration is 
suitable. And so, I do not think so much about the 
Resurrection — though there is not, even according to 
Greenleaf and Ewald, a better attested fact in history — 
while we have this perpetual and unbroken feast in 
memory of our Lord. Why did He institute it? Be- 
cause we so soon forget ; because we could forget even 
Him, and in the unspeakable condescension of His love. 
He admitted that we might forget, and gave us this 
tangible thing, so that what might be often forgotten, 
would not be always forgotten, — that when we became 
too engrossed with things we might be recalled to His 
love and His gift. 

Are you Christ's ? — Yes ! 

Are you afraid of the future ? — No ! 

How dare you be so confident, so unhesitating in your 
answer ? — Because I know whom I have believed. Be- 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD 



217 



cause I know He is able to keep what I have committed 
to Him against that day. I am persuaded that neither 
death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor power, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my 
Lord ! He that hath begun a good work in me will per- 
form it unto the day of Christ Jesus who says : " Where 
I am, there shall also My servant be. All power is 
given unto Me in heaven and on earth." He is able to 
make all grace abound. He is to present me to His Fa- 
ther with joy — holy, and unblamable before Him ! He 
has delivered me before I He has never failed me ! 
Why should I doubt Him? 

Does some trembling soul say, "Ah, if I only knew 
this was for me ! " It is for you. " All that the Father 
hath given Me shall come to Me." 

"But how do I know the Father hath given me to 
Christ ? If I could only know this, it seems to me that 
I could be such a happy, joyous Christian." 

But listen — " All that the Father hath given Me shall 
come to Me." 

"Yet that is just what I am not sure of — how do I 
know that I am Christ's ? If only this doubt could be 
set at rest ! I don't doubt Him ; I doubt myself." 

Let me repeat that text once more — " All that the Fa- 
ther hath given Me shall come to Me — shall come to Me." 
Have you come? "Yes." Then that is the seal. 
You come because the Father hath given you to Him. 
That you have come seals you, for "whosoever cometh 
unto Me I shall in no wise cast out, and none shall be 
able to pluck Him out of My hand." You are safe. 
He will deliver ! 



218 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Think of the century we have just left. Some of you 
know only sixteen or twenty years of it ; some were 
born back in the sixties, the forties — perhaps some of the 
gray-headed men in the thirties. Has He failed you ? 
O by all the goodness of the past, trust Him for the 
future. He that has begun a good work will finish it. 
If He has got you this far He will get you the rest of the 
way. He that hath delivered you out of six troubles 
will deliver you out of seven. He will help you in 
trouble and into trouble and out of trouble. He will 
help you over trouble and around some troubles you 
forecast but never reach. Once an aged Christian, 
while in great suffering, was asked by his friends whether 
he could bear it, if he would not break down under it ; 
and he said, Not until the sixteenth Psalm breaks down 
at the eighth verse." They asked him what he meant, 
and he answered, ''Because He ih at my right hand, I 
shall never be moved." There is your confidence. No 
matter how alone you are, yet you are not alone, for 
Christ is with you even unto the end of the world. 

' ' How am I to realize this comfort ? What am I to 
do? " Rest on Christ. Trust in Him. When I was a 
boy, we used to sing this — 

« Nothing either great or small, 
Nothing, sinner, no — 
Jesus died and paid it all, 
Yes, all the debt I owe." 

Every bit of it ! He is more than sufficient. You have 
nothing to do but take His great gift and say, '' Thank 
you." Now you can wrest that to your own destruction ; 
you can be a mere literalist, and say, " Then let me con- 
tinue in sin that grace may abound " ; but if you do. 



CONFIDENCE IN GOD 



219 



you know that you are wrong, and with certain reason- 
able restrictions, that is good theology, for — "by the 
works of the law shall no flesh be justified." 

If you realize the presence of Christ, you will not 
make that false plea. This feast is a great help to that 
realization, and so we keep it till He come. 

" Till He come ! O let the words 
Linger on the trembling chords; 
Let the little while between 
In their golden light be seen ; 
Let us think how heaven and home 
Lie beyond that — Till He come. 

«* When the weary ones we love 
Enter on their rest above, 
Seems the earth so poor and vast, 
All our life-joy overcast ? 
Hush, be every murmur dumb, 
It is only — Till He come. 

" See, the feast of love is spread ; 
Drink the wine and break the bread — 
Sweet memorials, till the Lord 
Calls us round His heavenly board. 
Some from earth, from glory some, 
Severed only — Till He come." 

Dwell on His love on the one side — love immeasurable ; 
and, on the other, I plead as much for your loyalty as 
your love, — a love I would rather call loyalty. Be true 
to Him. Present Him fairly to the world. Live in the 
hope of His coming. Trust the grace that did deliver, 
and does deliver; — it surely will deliver ! 



RENEWAL 



" We thank Thee for Thy love to Peter and 
Thy patience with him, that out of the shifting 
inaterial of his nature^ Thou didst fuse the 
rockr 



RENEWAL 



THERE is a word that occurs very often in both 
the Old and the New Testament, which is in- 
dicative of an absolutely necessary process in 
our spiritual life; this is the word ''renewal." 

A mountain does not renew itself. It does change. 
Within the memory of man the whole contour of moun- 
tains has changed, — a crag has fallen here, a fissure 
opened there, a forest grown or disappeared. Look at 
Vesuvius — that has changed completely, but you would 
never speak of it as renewal ; it is destruction or accre- 
tion, but it is not renewal. A mountain does not renew 
itself. But a lake does. I can think of a lake now 
where I have often been, not twelve miles from Baltimore. 
I know every bit of it ; I know the depth of the water at 
various places ; 1 have fished in it fifty times ; I know every 
path around it, and all the roads leading to it. I could 
go there blindfold. And yet it is not the same lake I 
have seen before. Not a particle of water is there now 
that was there when I last visited it. Why ? It renews 
itself; it is fed by a stream far up on the mountainside, 
and as this stream flows down into the lake, it carries off 
the water that was there and much of thv^ sediment, and 
a new — a renewed — lake is constantly being formed. 

Our human body renews itself. It is constantly 
changing. The same particles of matter do not remain, 
but are drifting down the blood -streams, some being car- 
ried ofi", and some being taken to the lungs for renewal 
223 



224 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



and readjustment to their work. I have been much in- 
terested in watching, ever since Christmas, a crushed 
finger. The whole nail was crushed, and is being grad- 
ually renewed, but so gradually that there is no percep- 
tible change from day to day. One black spot is gone ; 
another is half off, and in time the whole nail will be re- 
newed. It is very interesting ; it is very wonderful. 
My hand is the same ; its continuity is not disturbed ; it 
is very familiar to me : yet it is constantly changing. 
The whole body continually needs and has renewal. 
Every movement I make breaks down some of the tissue, 
and brings me nearer dissolution ; and if there be no cor- 
responding upbuilding the body wastes away. Words- 
worth says, 

«• The least motion which they made 
It seemed a thrill of pleasure." 

But such motions waste the body, and alike, the expres- 
sion of pleasure or of pain hastens the collapse. Yet 
through it all continuity is not destroyed. 

Did you ever, while travelling on a railroad train, see 
a gang of men resting on their shovels and spades and 
picks as the train went by ? They are repairing the road, 
yet travel is not interfered with. A sleeper is taken out 
here ; a rail is readjusted there ; new ballast is deposited ; 
switches are changed — the whole track is renewed, and 
yet travel goes right on. As in the lake, it is the same, 
and not the same. So in your body the waste is repaired 
— new blood-corpuscles formed, old tissues removed and 
new put in their places, a weak organ strengthened, some 
obstruction taken out of the way, quantities of detritus 
carried off in the blood, but the body is the same, only 
renewed. No good physician will ever say that he heals 



RENEWAL 



225 



the body. He well knows that behind his art, and abso- 
lutely necessary to its successful working, is the vis inedica- 
trix naiurcBy the active remedial agencies of nature, and 
that they heal and bring health, that he must call on 
them and work in harmony with them, if he would cure. 

Despite this renewal, however, on the physical side there 
is a line of declination, an inevitable line of declination, al- 
ways bending more and more as we near that unknown 
bourne. Do what we will to stay it and straighten it, it 
yet always bends more and more. The outward man is 
surely perishing and being resolved into its component 
parts — its gases, metals, vapours, fluids. The end must 
come. But what of it ? If the inward man is being re- 
newed, this makes us in a grand sense indifferent to the 
steady, inevitable decline of the physical. Paul says, 

I die daily " ; he was expressing the reverse side of the 
truth of continuity. The life goes on uninterruptedly, 
but it does so on the basis of constant renewal, and if 
there were no daily dying there would be no need of this 
renewal. Let us not fear. God is not the God of the 
dead, but of the living. I never see one of these little city 
sparrows without a thrill. The sparrow is not a very 
grand or wonderful bird, and yet I often think of the say- 
ing that not one even of them falls to the ground without 
your Father. I shall never forget the thrill, the shiver of 
emotion, that passed through me when I first saw a dead 
sparrow lying on the sidewalk. Think how few dead 
birds you see ! There the little thing lay. It had been 
one vibrating centre of intense vitality — a vast deal of 
oxygenization had been going on there — and I thought of 
the active little heart stilled, and the busy life ended, and 
it just a frozen clod — its heat all radiated ; and then I 
thought of the Father who marks the fall of the sparrow ! 



226 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAII?^ 



Will He not, then, mark my life to its end, and beyond its 
end ? O me of little faith ! 

How is your mind being renewed ? What have you 
been reading this past week that has really benefited and 
strengthened it ? I don't mean, what have you read for 
pleasure, as pleasure is not always profit and upbuilding, 
but what really solid reading have you done ? The mind, 
too, needs its revitalization. 

And since we are in God's universe, the same law is 
operative for the spirit, for the new hfe. God's universe 
is one — one turn about His throne and all controlled by 
His law. So, like the physical and mental life, our new 
life in Christ must be renewed. In Colossians 3 : 10 we 
read, ** And have put on the new man, which is renewed 
in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." 
The new man is renewed. It is not enough that I have 
this new life — it must be tended, fed, renewed. The 
new life is a life superadded, not developed from the old. 
God reaches down and lifts us up to Himself. Just as 
the vegetable takes hold of the mineral and transforms it 
into its own higher life, as the animal uplifts the vege- 
table, and the human takes all these elements of nature, 
and uses them for its own maintenance, so God just 
reaches down and catches us up to Himself, and we are 
renewed. Are you letting Him renew you ? or is your 
new life barely existing, crowded back and beaten down 
by the world ? The new life cannot thrive on any sus- 
tenance you can give it — you must push the world aside, 
and open the door to Christ. 

Do you feel sometimes as if life were too hard? Paul 
felt that, and turned from it. In 2 Cor. 4 : 16 he says, 
"For which cause we faint not, but though our outward 
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 



E E N E W A L 



227 



When the body gives out — as the body gives out — think 
of this, the spirit is being renewed and fitted for that 
other and completer life. The line of physical declina- 
tion is inevitable, but I will turn from it to consider that 
straight, undeviating line of spiritual development, that 
points with unwavering steadiness to the triumph and 
completed life of the spirit. It is strong, unswerving, all- 
satisfying, full of hope and certitude, and what is it to 
me that the outward man perishes ! It is but the freeing 
of the eternal spirit, which by its struggles has gained its 
power. Use whatever strength of the spirit you have, 
for your Lord. Forget yourself; think only of Him; 
get tired in His service ; let the body be wearied for 
Him. 

But do not waste your strength. We are so easily dis- 
organized and demoralized ! Do you recall the sermon 
of a week or so ago — "It is good for me that I have been 
afflicted " ? So, only, can God renew us sometimes. 
Every sin I commit wastes some of the energy of the 
spirit ; every evil thought sets up barriers between me 
and His renewing, every self-indulgence weakens my 
power to receive from Him ; every fit of temper breaks 
down spiritual tissue, and only by affliction can He bring 
me again close to His side. 

In Romans 12 : 2 we have this warning, ** Be not con- 
formed to this world, but be ye transformed " — How? — 
" by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what 
is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." 
We yield a little here and a little there. From the spar- 
row's body had radiated all the heat, but the surround- 
ing temperature was not appreciably raised ; and so from 
us go principle and conscience — we lose our most pre- 
cious treasures at the call of some temptation — and the 



228 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



moral atmosphere is not appreciably raised ; we lose, and 
no one gains ; we radiate spiritual power to no purpose. 
It must be given out, but let it be given where it can re- 
new and be renewed. 

Going back to the Old Testament we read, "Even the 
youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
utterly fall ; but they that wait upon the Lord shall re- 
new their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall 
walk and not faint." And in Psalm 103 : 5, Their 
youth is renewed like the eagle's" — again using that 
wonderful bird-life to express the energy of the spirit. 
So, if it is to be freely renewed, don't be afraid to expend 
it. If you use your strength for God He will renew it, 
but you must wait on Him, and waiting implies many 
things ; it has many meanings. Think of its many uses 
— "a lady in waiting" — service to royalty; — "I will 
wait on you," they say at the South, meaning what we 
mean when we say, " I will wait for you " — at the cor- 
ner, in the store. Then we say, **I will wait on you," 
meaning, sometimes, <'I will serve you," sometimes, "I 
will go to you," — and so on. Yes, wait has many dif- 
ferent uses. Now, apply it to Christ in all its different 
uses and meanings, and you will renew your strength, 
until nothing shall be impossible unto you. There will 
be a re-creation in you. He will make you virile for 
His service. Give out of your renewed life for those 
who need it. Even if you don't know what to say to 
those in sorrow, go and sit with them, and be sorrowful 
with them. Even if you cannot suggest any remedy for 
the great difficulty confronting a friend, go and suffer 
with him ; let your strength radiate to him for his em- 
powering. 



E E N E W A L 



229 



Will all this tire you — use up your energy — devitalize 
you — exhaust you — leave you wearied and tired out ? 
Yes, it will do all that. If virtue goes out of you, it 
costs — it costs ; but it counts. Even Christ could not 
give without cost to Himself; even He perceived that 
virtue had gone out of Him. I know of no joy quite so 
satisfying as that which comes to me when I am able to 
help some one who is suffering. It upHfts and exhilarates 
me. I can hardly wait to get home after a day of such 
work to tell of the joy of the day ; it seems almost as if I 
could not endure the gladness ; but as I get near home, 
the reaction begins, the body weakens, I am tired and 
quiet, and have little to say after all when I reach home. 
After a while, high tide comes again, and they hear it and 
rejoice with me. But the giving costs, and because it 
costs, it is intensity of joy. Not only do I enjoy when 
I am giving out vitality, but in proportion as I give it 
out, — and the more weary I become in the service of the 
Master, the deeper is the joy. It is glorious to be used 
up for Him I 

You have had the same experience. Something goes 
well with you through the day, some pleasure comes to 
you, some sense of enjoyment, maybe a good story. 
You think, "I will tell that at home" ; but you don't, 
at least not at first. You must recuperate ; you must be 
renewed. And so I say to my devoted Christian as to 
my worldly Christian, creep up close to Christ, for He 
only can renew you. The pain and suffering involved in 
service for Christ, are but the birth-pangs by which love 
and gentleness are born in you. It must be so ; all birth 
is through suffering. 

^ The spiritual nature is renewed by knowledge, by dis- 
cipline, by indwelling, — submit to it all, even if it be 



230 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



through anguish. These all have their part in your per- 
fecting, but the completion of Christ's training comes 
from association with Him. Wordsworth speaks of a 
child, who by constant companionship with nature, 
caught its subtle beauty, and was changed into cor- 
responding beauty. So shall we be changed into the 
image of Christ. Constant association results in assimi- 
lation. We all with open face beholding as in a glass 
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image 
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
In a sermon on "Prayer," I told you of the little boy 
who came in and sat down by his father, who after a 
while looked up from his work and asked if he wanted 
anything. "No, just to be with you." Just be with 
God — that will bring it. O, tired woman in the house- 
hold, the nursery, the school; O, discouraged man in 
the office, behind the counter, — ^just be with Christ, and 
the worst is over, and you are renewed. His life be- 
comes crystallized in you ; you are edified. Be much 
with Him. Be willful about it, willful for His sake ; 
determine to give Him His chance with you. 

When Paul writes to Titus, he says, "Not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according to His 
mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration [there 
is the new birth], and the renewing of the Holy Ghost" 
[there is the constant vitalizing of the new life, which 
had its birth when we accepted Christ]. The title, 
" Holy Ghost," is God's Old Testament name, and 
points us back to the time when by His brooding over 
chaos it became cosmos ; when He inspired Bezaleel for 
the work of adorning the tabernacle ; when He spoke 
through prophets and mighty men. But He comes to us 
with a new name, the name of Christ, — " whom the 



RENEWAL 



231 



Father will send in My name" — and He is Christ in us 
and with us. 

Let us not, like the mighty prophet, Elijah, get the 
"blues." He had gone to Douglas in his castle, had 
bearded the lion in his den, and then he said, "It is 
enough ; take away my life ; I am not better than my 
fathers. I am left alone to serve Thee ! " No, he was 
not left alone, and you are not. Trust God ; give your 
strength to Him ; be much with Him. When the ship 
springs a leak, when, through the rifts of the shrinking 
timbers, the wind and weather come in, when the creak- 
ing of the hulk betokens danger, be you sure you are 
hear the port, and soon to see the Owner of the ship. 
When you feel your grip on your tools relaxing, and the 
work of your life almost too much for your strength, re- 
inforce it by the power of the unconquerable spirit. And 
when, in spite of all, you must let go your tools, fall back 
without fear into His everlasting arms, which He never 
removes, and wake to find the body of your humiliation 
changed into the likeness of the body of His glory ! 



CONSIDERING JESUS 



" May both our thoughts and words this day be 
such as will not hurt Thee ; keep us from doing 
what hurts Thee and disfigures us ; make us 
solicitous for Thy honour — we do not know 
how sensitive Thou art'' 



CONSIDERING JESUS 



" Wherefore^ holy brethren^ partakers of the heavenly callings 
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus ; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses 
was faithful in all his housej^ — Hebrews 3 : i, 2. 

I USED to think that the etymology of the word 
" consider " was to sit with," and once in a sermon 
I spoke of the beauty of considering, sitting down 
by the side of," the poor. And it is beautiful; but it 
seems that an accepted etymology of the word is con 
stderaj **with the stars," that is, consider life, view life 
and all its activities from an exalted plane. The tendency 
of the gospel is up; it might be called " uphill ward- 
ness " ; it is a high calling, and we should feel its up- 
ward pull. I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
Me," — far above all principalities and powers." You 
climb one of God's mountain-ranges, only to see another 
swing into view. 

Now, holy brethren, get up among the stars, above the 
low, earthly plane. Do you shrink from that word 
'*holy"? Well, let us look at "brethren" first, it 
seems so natural and human. I would like you to-night 
to get some new conception of Jesus. Can't it be this 
nearness of brotherhood ? He was not ashamed to call 
us brethren. He took upon Himself our flesh for that 
purpose. **Yes," you say, we know we are His 
brethren, but so unworthy ! — surely not holy ! Don't, 
don't call me holy ! " But you are; you must be; His 
holiness is imputed to you ; you are a saint, a sanct, one 
235 



236 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



set apart for holy purposes. Christ died, and we died 
unto sin ; Christ was buried, we, too, are buried with 
Him in baptism ; He rose from the dead, we are raised 
into newness of life ; He is on the right hand of God, we 
also shall reign with Him. The identification is perfect, 
and growing unto perfection. We are like Him now in 
essence; we are daily transformed into His likeness. 
And since He is <'the holy child Jesus," and you are 
His brothers, you must be "holy brethren." 

When we recall His praying *' Holy Father," we think 
of a finished and unattainable state, and yet Christ com- 
mands us, " Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven 
is perfect." He is holy, and we are in process of holi- 
ness. Temper conquered is a little piece of holiness. A 
kindness done is a little piece of holiness. An act of 
self-sacrifice is a little piece of holiness. Pieces, making 
wholeness; fractions, making integrity — the integer. 
Practice holiness; grow in holiness — this is your 

calling." 

But forget yourselves for a little, and "consider 
Jesus." Jesus, the human name. Take both of the 
supposed etymologies of the word. Get up among the 
stars with Him ; sit down by Him and see as He sees. 
Draw into your souls the true relative values of things. 
Get a new and true perspective, and from those sublime 
heights look down on your lives, and see all that concerns 
you as He sees it. If ye then be risen with Christ, and 
seated with Him on the right hand of God, learn to judge 
of life from your exalted seat. 

Do you remember in Browning's poem, " An Epistle," 
how indifferent Lazarus was to the affairs of this life, 
after having had a glimpse of the other ? He was seeing 
things in their true perspective. How I would like to 



CONSIDEKING JESUS 237 



know what Lazarus said when he came back from the 
tomb ! 

You ask, Is life worth while?" O, have high 
ideals ! What should we do without them ? 

Jesus was the Apostle " of the new faith — one sent ; 
as Moses was sent, as He sends you, as the messages to 
the churches were sent ; — epistle, the thing sent ; apostle, 
the one sent — all sent to glorify God. " As My Father 
hath sent Me, even so send I you." See how He identi- 
fies us with Himself \ and this sacramental identification 
bears fruit, creates in us new joy and new hopes. 

Moses was faithful in all God's house; surely we can 
be, for we live in the full sunshine and he lived in the 
twilight. Attainment is not what our holy Father re- 
quires of us, but fidelity, trust-worthy-ness . With little 
or much, whatever He gives you, be faithful. What 
difference does it make what your occupation is ? That 
is only the set of tools God gives you, the opportunity to 
present Him to the world ; do not misrepresent Him. 
No matter how much we have ; no matter how great our 
chances, at the best we enter heaven only as apprentices. 
Are we training to the best advantage ? 



in 

COMMUNION DISCOURSES 



THINGS THAT SURVIVE 



" May the beauty of the Lord be upon usy so 
that we dare look on the white glory of His 
table. May what we remember to-day become 
a reminder next week. As we have witnessed 
His dying, so may His living be witnessed in 
us. In the tests of to-morrow may the memory 
of to-day strengthen us.^^ 



THINGS THAT SURVIVE 

" They shall perish, but Thou remainest." — Hebrews I : ii. 

THERE was once a king in the East, who was 
troubled with a vacillating mind ; sometimes 
he was strong and determined, sometimes tor- 
mented with uncertainty. As his mental malady grew 
on him, he became so miserable before a decision, that 
he called on the wise men of his court to give him some 
word that would steady him ; but they could not. Now 
it happened that his little daughter succeeded where 
they had failed, for she gave him for his birthday a ring 
on which were inscribed two words in Arabic, which she 
did not understand, but which translated meant, **This 
too shall pass away" ; and in the face of that certainty 
he gathered strength and poise. 

The saying was used very effectively by Warren Hast- 
ings in his book, where he tells how this story gave him 
hope in his deepest despair ; and also by Paul Hamilton 
Hayne, the Southern poet, whose early death was only 
too true a comment on the words. 

" Art thou in misery, brother ? 
This I say, 
Be comforted. 

Thy grief shall pass away. 
Art thou elated ? 

Ah ! be not too gay, 
Temper thy joy ; 

This too shall pass away. 
243 



244 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Art thou in danger ? 

Still let reason sway 
And cling to hope — 

This too shall pass away. 
Tempted art thou ? 

In all thine anguish lay 
One truth to heart — 

This too shall pass away. 
Do rays of laurelled glory 

Round thee play ? 
Kinglike art thou ? — 

This too shall pass away. 
Whate'er thou art, 

"Where'er thy footsteps stray, 
Heed Wisdom's voice, 

All things must pass away." 

I had a friend who used often to express the same idea 
in the words, ** The darkest day, lived till to-morrow, 
shall have passed away." It is a wonderfully quieting 
thought amid the unrest of life. We stand to-day where 
this feeling is very strong — at the close of a year, of 
many years, of a hundred years. ^ We all know that at 
the close of this century not one of us will be here — all 
shall have passed away. There are two things we can 
all know beyond cavil — the century in which we were 
born and the century in which we shall die. 

«« Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day ; 
Earth's joys grow dim ; its glories fade away. 
Change and decay in all around I see ; 
O Thou, who changest not, abide with me ! " 

But I want to speak to you of two things that will not 
pass away, — the life of God in me, and the love of God 
for m6. 

* The first Sunday morning of 1901. 



THINGS THAT SURVIVE 245 



I. By the life of God in me, I mean, of course, that 
special life of His Spirit in mine, though I fully believe 
that this natural life is of Him and is His constant gift. 
But more especially, the life of the spirit is from Him, 
established and sustained and continued by Him. How 
I persist ! This strangely familiar self of mine, — so fa- 
miliar to me, and yet so strangely unfamiliar. Once I 
was a little baby in a cradle, and I grew and grew, and 
have attained to manhood ; and much has changed, yet 
I am myself — / have persisted through all changes — 
physical, mental, psychical, historical. I am changing 
all the time. This hand of mine is changing bit by bit. 
Yet bodily changes do not affect me ; I remain myself, 
with identity unchanged. 

Through how many permutations have I already per- 
sisted ! And when life closes, and the nimble fingers of 
disintegration pick my body to pieces, it will not touch 
me. Socrates lived in the twilight, but even he said. 

Bury me where you will, if you really catch mey 
This persistence is the result of the life of God in me. 
We might appropriate to ourselves, in a Christian sense, 
what Shelley says so beautifully of the cloud : — 

" I am the daughter of earth and water, 

And the nursling of the sky ; 
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores ; 

I change, but I cannot die. 
For after the rain, when, with never a stain, 

The pavilion of heaven is bare. 
And the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams, 

Build up the blue dome of air, — 
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph. 

And out of the caverns of rain, 
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, 

I arise, and upbuild it again." 



246 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Even without the Bible I would believe in the contin- 
uance of life. But beside the weighty argument of all 
natural phenomena, I know that in Christ all things con- 
sist — are held together — and in Him I live. At His 
word the outward world will pass away — the elements 
will melt with fervent heat, the firmament shall be folded 
up and laid aside as a garment, but by the power of the 
endless life of God in me, /shall remain, eternal as His 
life. It is a good gospel ! I know I have followed no 
cunningly devised fables. I know my dream of immor- 
tality will come true. 

" Thou wilt not leave us in the dust. 

Thou madest man, he knows not why ; ' 
He feels he was not made to die ; 
And Thou hast made him — Thou art just ! " 

Does this table of the Supper bring old memories to 
you ? Do you remember another hand that ministered 
of the bread and wine to you ? Do you remember an- 
other and a loved voice which repeated to you the words 
of Jesus — This is My body which is broken for you ; 
this do in remembrance of Me " ? Do you remember 
your first communion, when you came as a new con- 
fessor of Jesus Christ to His table? Are there any 
here who remember when the walls of this church were 
white, before thfey had taken on the glory of colour in 
which we worship now? These are all passing condi- 
tions, but the God who gave them worth, still abides 
with us. 

And this ever-abiding God constantly resurrects your 
life. He is the God of the Resurrection, as well as of 
the Resurging life-current that ebbs and flows day by 
day in you ; the God of revival and survival is ever with 



THINGS THAT SURVIVE 247 



you. He lets you die daily ; He rouses you with a word 
of command, and you live. 

H. And the love of God for me shall never pass away. 
// persists through all things — through the burden of 
sorrow, through the blackness of despair, through the 
depression of doubt, through the self-loathing and hope- 
lessness of the power of besetting sin — through them all, 
through all things, it persists. I know His smile of ap- 
proval over a kept law, and His frown of disapproval 
over a broken law ; but I know that both the smile and the 
frown are expressions of His love, and that both the kept 
and the broken laws are channels through which His love 
finds expression, whether we enjoy or suffer. He is 
training us ; and a strong love must find strong expres- 
sion. He has loved us with an everlasting love. 

Any mother here of a grown-up son who is an honour 
and a comfort to her, knows something of what God is 
expecting of us, and of how He trains us, that He may 
see of the travail of His soul in us and be satisfied. 
When you saw your boy's first smile you were glad, yet 
there was no certain promise in it ; but now, after your 
years of loving training and patient faith in him, you 
have fulfillment ! 

And to those whose sons have gone out of their lives 
and passed beyond their vision — them, too, shall Christ 
bring with Him when He comes again, and you shall be 
satisfied. O, believe in His love, — it will never fail you ! 

Invitation to the Table. — This Supper was given to all 
the disciples — to him who should betray Him, to him 
who should deny Him, to him who loved Him so — to 
Judas as well as to John. Christ imposed no conditions; 
He trusted to the appeal of His love. He did not say, 
" If you will serve Me faithfully, then take, eat" — else 



248 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Peter could never have supped with Him. It was after 
the meal that His love began to probe them. He did not 
fence the table, nor dare I, nor would I. And I am glad 
He did not. He left it unlimited to whosoever would. 

Now, I am going to do a very unecclesiastical thing, 
but I am sure not an unchristian thing. If there is any 
one in the house, who, while I have been speaking, has 
felt the appeal of God in his soul, has felt as if he too 
would like to commune with God's people, I dare not 
refuse that soul a place at the Lord's Table. If to any 
man, if to any woman, has come the desire to yield him- 
self, to yield herself, to the love of Christ — if that soul 
honestly determines to confess Christ the next time the 
chance comes to do so, I dare not refuse you a place at 
His Table. I can trust to your fairness, if you will trust 
to His love. 

As to Christians, they know their privileges in Christ. 

After the Bread Had Been Taken. — We would see 
Jesus. We would commune with Him. We long to 
know Him. We long to meet Him at His Table. 

After the Supper. — The feast is over. This, too, has 
passed away, but not His love. The bread and the wine 
will be removed, but Christ stays. 

When after the resurrection Jesus met His disciples on 
the lake shore, and they ate together, when they had 
dined, Jesus said, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
Me?" 

And Peter said, " Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
Thee." 

Jesus said to him the second time, " Simon, son of 
Jonas, lovest thou Me ? " 

And Peter said, <*Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I 
love Thee." 



THINGS THAT SUEYIVE 



249 



Jesus asks only for our love. He never asked, as the 
hymn says, 

" I gave my life for thee ; 
My precious blood I shed 
That thou mightst ransomed be, 
And quickened from the dead. 
I gave, I gave My life for thee — 
What hast thou given for Me ? " 

No, He never asks that; He always says, "What wilt 
thou give?" 

And Jesus said unto Peter the third time, " Simon, 
son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ? " 

And Peter was grieved because He said unto him the 
third time, Lovest thou Me?" and he said, **Lord, 
Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love 
Thee." 

And Jesus said unto him, " Feed My sheep." 
Do you love Him ? Then go out and show your love. 
T>o something for Him 1 



REMEMBERING THE LORD 



**0 may such a love, thai puts all past sin away, 
rouse us to a freer and fuller y nobler and more 
loving devotion / May we go out and bring to 
the memory of the world Him whom we have 
memorialized to-day ^ 



REMEMBERING THE LORD 



" This do in remembrance of Me." — Luke 22: 19. 

THIS do in remembrance of Me. I am sure we 
have all sung the beautiful hymn of Mont- 
gomery — 

" According to Thy gracious word, 
In meek humility, 
This will I do, my dying Lord, 
I will remember Thee." 

But what do we mean by remembering Christ ? Just 
taking of this Supper? O I am sure it means some- 
thing deeper than that ! What do you mean to do in 
remembrance of Christ this morning ? Take the bread 
and the cup ; think of Him ] pray to Him ; rest in 
Him ? Yes, all that ; but the remembrance Jesus had in 
mind when He spoke these words was something more 
prophetic, of wider outreach, — not confined to that 
Upper Room. Do you remember what Jesus was doing ? 
He was giving the symbols of His own life and blood and 
being. He was celebrating and superseding the old 
feast, and well He knew what it would mean to Him. 
If we would remember Him as He meant us to remember 
Him, it will be a memory that becomes all one with 
sacrifice ; a memory that takes hold of the deepest pur- 
poses of life, a memory that consecrates the whole life in 
all its affections and activities to Him, as a sign that He 
gave Himself for us. The memory of what He was to 
253 



254 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



us, of what He did for us, will be a challenge and a 
summons to our utmost and untiring devotion to Him — 
not only the recalling of our old vow, when we first gave 
ourselves to Him, but a new avowal of our love to Him, 
our service of Him — the future devotion of our lives to 
Him — the devotion, the something vowed and set aside 
as sacred, and never again to be used but for Him. 

What was Jesus doing in that Upper Room ? Many 
thoughts were surging through His mind; much was 
just ahead of Him to bear, but His main purpose was 
His loving care of men. He was not thinking of Him- 
self at all. His attention was not fixed on His own 
needs. He was possessed by the centrifugal force that 
goes out of itself in its effort to help another, and not 
with the selfish centripetal force that has no time for the 
needs of others in its own self-absorption, that asks : 
Does this relate the world to me ? Rather He said : 
This relates Me to the world. 

Think how strangely and cautiously the Upper Room 
had been selected, so that Judas might not carry out his 
scheme in such a way as to interrupt that Last Supper, 
which Jesus had so desired to eat with His own. As a 
result, there was no servant present to wash their feet. 
They sat down, and there was an exchange of glances. 
They could not eat until they had washed. Who should 
take the place of the servant ? These high pretenders 
on the lookout for office and seats on the right hand and 
on the left hand in the coming kingdom, could not. 
"No," they said, "not 1." James said, "Not I," and 
John said, "Not I," and Peter said, " Not I." Ttien 
Jesus, knowing that He came from God and went to God, 
laid aside His garments and began to wash their feet. 
Knowing that He capie from God and went to God, noth- 



EEMEMBEEIKG THE LOED 255 



ing could demean Him. This do in remembrance of Me. 
Do what ? Anything you can do to any one for love's 
sake. Knowing your high mission, feel the sacredness 
of any act of loving service. 

Was Gladstone less honoured that day when he could 
not be found in the House ? He was needed for some 
important matter of state ; he had left the House, so 
they went to find him, but he could not be found. They 
searched everywhere. He had been last seen at a cer- 
tain crossing, and that gave them the clue. He had 
missed a familiar crossing-sweeper, and had gone to 
look him up, and help him if he needed help. They 
found him in a garret, reading to and comforting this 
man — ^just as willing to do that as to guide the affairs of 
state. Knowing that he came from God and went to 
God, he was ready for any service. 

Was Phillips Brooks more godlike when he was sway- 
ing by his immense power the crowds who hung on his 
words, than when he helped that poor, tired, overworked 
mother ? He had gone to call on her, and found that 
she needed to go on some important errand, but could 
not leave her child. So he told her to go, and he rocked 
the cradle and cared for the child until she returned. It 
was not his child ; God never gave him one, but it was a 
chance to serve in the spirit of Christ. These things 
must not be incidental to life ; — they are not accidental, 
but fundamental. Knowing that he came from God and 
went to God, therefore he could realize the sacredness of 
any loving service. 

This applies to children, too. They have part in this 
great sacramental life. They can show the same spirit 
by being unselfish and obliging. There is nothing that 
one can do, that can be menial, if it be done for love. 



256 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Do you remember the illustration used in last Sunday 
afternoon's sermon — of Dr. Johnson standing in the 
market-place in London, all of one day, with no um- 
brella and no protection from the storm ? They thought 
he was crazy, but he was not. He was only trying to 
expiate the sin of fifty years before, when his father had 
asked a similar service from him and he had refused. 
I suppose that when we come to look back on life, we 
shall regret almost as much as anything the acts of loving 
service we might have done but were too proud to do. 
If we recognized our high position as our Master did, 
false pride would be annihilated. 

And what Jesus was doing then was all of a piece with 
what He was forever doing. He turns to Peter (though 
His own heart was breaking) and says, Satan hath de- 
sired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I 
have prayed for you." Later, in that same room. He 
prayed for those same men soon to be so sorely tried : 

I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou 
hast given Me." Even us He remembered that night : 
" Neither pray I for these alone, but for all those who 
shall believe on Me through their word." In Geth- 
seraane, it was not terror for Himself that caused His 
anguish, but for the world that so needed the successful 
ending of His work. • In the crowd and confusion of the 
arrest. He healed the ear of the wounded man. In the 
Judgment Hall, where, you would think, He had enough 
to do to care for Himself, He thought of Peter, and 
turned and looked at him with pity and love. Along that 
dolorous way, He said to the women : Weep not for 
Me, but for yourselves." To the thief He opened Para- 
dise. To His mother He gave a son, and to His be- 
loved disciple, a sacred trust. For His murderers He 



EEMEMBEEING THE LOKD 257 



prayed forgiveness. Self-forgetting, self-effacing, self- 
devoting these were the natural expressions of His life. 

This do in remembrance of Me": bring the su- 
preme devotion of life to the incidental duty. Feel 
the obligation of high endowments, and high station and 
high privileges. Feel the noblesse oblige of great oppor- 
tunities. The sun shines for all because of its own in- 
ward "must," and we should live for all, because of the 
inward " must " of Christian love. Christ gave us an ex- 
ample, and then said : As My Father sent Me, even 
so send I you." "This do in remembrance of Me" : 
take this Supper as a memorial ; but not merely this — 
this, and what it stands for. 

Your blood must be shed ; let it be shed for Him. 
Your body will be broken ; let Him be the altar. Little 
by little your life drifts away ; let it be a sacrificial offer- 
ing to Him. Then you can see it go with joy, because 
you will find your life again, complete in Him. It does 
not matter what form your activity takes. The carpenter 
builds well for Him, so that His work stands. If you 
wield a pen, let its every word be true and every account 
accurate, for Him. If you control great railroad combi- 
nations, feel that you are working in unison with Him 
who combines all forces. Let the lawyer stand for truth 
and justice because he represents the God of truth and 
justice. Through music, let your love for Him find ex- 
pression. If you teach, you can follow in the footsteps 
of the great Teacher, who opened up the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge to others. If you are a mother 
in the home, comfort as He would. And the schoolboy 
can look for inspiration to Him who was a boy in school 
once. Whatever your work is, do it " in remembrance " 
of your Lord. Feel that His honour is at stake if you fail 



258 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Him. Be on guard for Him. Remember always that 
you represent Him, and be so faithful to His memory, 
that at last you will keep your tryst with Him in great 
joy. 

The crusaders had a cross sewed on their outer gar- 
ment to remind them whose service they had entered, 
and to witness of that service to all who saw. It must 
be firmly sewed on, and in a conspicuous place — on the 
shoulder or breast, so that they would never forget their 
allegiance. What does the cross signify? Christ's 
broken body. What did the broken body signify to 
Christ ? Completeness of devotion to the Father's will, 
to the world's salvation, and — victory / You are a 
King's son ! Live a kingly life, and make the kingdom 
come ! 

What if to-day you have come to the Upper Room for 
the last time ? What if your life should suddenly end ? 
When that time comes, what would your answer be if 
you should ask yourself, ''This was my body, broken for 
what ? ' ' The body surely will be broken ; are you 
making that sacrifice worth while? Think of the last 
days of Napoleon, — his great schemes broken, his splen- 
did triumphs behind him, his life lonely, forsaken and 
desolate. Do you remember the picture, with his head 
dropped forward on his breast? Thus was his body 
broken — for what ? Some day you will say it in regard 
to some business combination or professional reputation 
or social achievement ; will you be satisfied, or will you 
say with surprise and regret, ''Is that all my body was 
worn out for? " 

I summon you on from this lower glory to that higher 
and nobler glory that your Master showed, — the glory of 
self-sacrifice. Tire out your body for Him ; coin your 



EEMEMBEEING THE LOED 259 



blood into devotion to Him. Help and train some chil- 
dren that but for your efforts would have no chance in 
life. Lift up girls, who have little or no incentive, into 
noble womanhood. Enter into the lives of the poor with 
the radiance of your richer life. Bring to the troubled the 
repose of your faith. Try to adjust some of the inequali- 
ties that form life's burden for so many. So shall your 
body be broken and your blood be shed, but you will 
commit your finished work with joy into your Father's 
hands. 

You think following Christ means following Christ to 
heaven. No, it means Gethsemane and Calvary. You 
want to follow Him to heaven, beloved, but what is the 
way to follow Him ? You must follow Him in His life of 
ministry, of service, of self-forgetting love, — you must 
lay down your life for Him ; yes, you must lay down 
your life little by little and day by day. You will 
probably not be called on to lay it down all at once, 
though thousands have been called to that sacrifice dur- 
ing this past year, — and then again, you may. But little 
by little, you surely must, if you would follow Christ. 

I speak to the young Christian, to him who has just 
enlisted for Christ. Did you ever see a company of 
soldiers marching out to service ? or even marching in 
parade ? O, their splendid banners ! And the rush and 
stir of many souls devoted to one cause ! Martial 
music always brings a lump into my throat, and the 
flicker of soldiers' legs sends a thrill through me and 
brings the water to my eyes. But is there nothing more 
beautiful ? nothing that brings higher satisfaction ? Did 
you ever see a regiment return ? They are bedraggled, 
their ranks are thinned out, their uniforms are torn, but 
the thought underneath of what they have been through, 



260 FEAGMEKTS THAT EEMAIN 



their offerings, their dangers — the blue all discoloured by 
the black of battle, the white all smirched by weather 
and many exposed nights and the powder of many engage- 
ments, the crimson dyed a deeper hue by the blood of 
those who died to uphold it, — ah, then I know there is 
something more beautiful than the beautiful buckhng on 
of the armour, even the splendour of a life which has 
been risked ! 

By the memory of those who have dared all and been 
broken, not merely for this country but for a heavenly 
country, by the memory of faces you have seen but will 
not see again till you eat this feast anew in your 
Father's kingdom, by the devotion of .the lives you have 
loved best, I beseech you that you break your bodies 
down, that you wear your vitality out, for the onward 
movement of the kingdom, so that when at last you ap- 
pear before Him to give in your account, you may say, 

I spent it all for Thee ! " Be uncompromising in your 
devotion. Take a sacred vow on yourself that your 
hands, your feet, your tongue, shall be instruments for 
His activity, that your gifts shall be devoted to Him and 
His cause, that your prayers and your sympathies shall 
go out to those who need you. 

This do in remembrance of Him, — commune at His 
table with Him, and this do in remembrance of Him, — 
all you may do in your daily life in helpfulness of others 
for His sake. 

Let us remember His covenant with us. He has kept 
His half: may He help us to keep ours ! 

After the Supper. — Don't stop and speculate as to 
how much help you have received. You ate your morn- 
ing meal, and probably have not thought of it since, but 
in its strength you came here and have prayed and 



EEMEMBEEING THE LOED 261 



thought and worshipped, and will return home. So, 
take for granted the strength received here; He will 
make it sufficient. Go out and do His work, and believe 
that the strength He has given and will give, will be all 
you need to do the work He gives you. 



" May the joy of the Lord be in our hearts to- 
day, and the beauty of the Lord in our lives to- 
morrow y 

JOY 

" That My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be 
Jilledfulir — John 15: 11. 

AND yet what conditions were His — a borrowed 
room, no remnant of the enthusiastic crowds 
of but a few days before, pursued by the relent- 
less hatred of His enemies, and only twelve weak, 
cowardly, disheartened men to show for His years of 
work — and one of those a traitor. Surely, it must have 
been an inward joy of which He spoke. That is what 
the Christian should possess. Think of the symphonies 
heard in the mute heart of Beethoven ! How his soul 
must have been enraptured by the unuttered music he 
heard ! For he could hear what we cannot. 

Do you know what inward joy is ? Did you ever see 
a musician looking over a score of music and note his 
face light up as the melody of it came to him, though 
he had no instrument ? He needed none ! And we, 
who possess Christ's joy, need no outward condition to 
perfect it, to fill it full. There is time enough for Him to 
give you things when He sees you need things ; now, He 
is training you to enjoy. 

The disciples were sad because Jesus was going away, 
and He said, would like to stay, knowing how you 
feel, but it is better for you that I go away, for I will 
send My spirit to be with you, — an inward friend, where 
I could be only an outward one ; and He will keep your 
joy replenished." 

262 



IV 

PRAYER-MEETING TALKS 



The prayer-meeting is a time for strength 
and upbuilding, completing the more intimate 
communion of the closet ^ 

Past our childishness Und wilfulness and 
disobedience, Thy will be done. Supplement 
our prayers. Supplant our prayers, if neces- 
sary.^^ 



GETHSEMANE^ 



Luke 22 : 39-47 ; Matthew 26 : 36-47. 

I HAVE taken for our thought to-night the Sunday- 
school lesson for next week, as is my custom on 
Wednesday evening. We have here the hardest 
lesson in the path of obedience. There is no lesson the 
church needs more than this lesson of obedience, and 
Jesus trod the path to it faithfully and to the very end. 
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 
Not emotion but obedience is the test of our love for 
Christ. Jesus was a man ; and in His human nature He 
had this lesson to learn as well as all other lessons which 
we men must learn. I could never preach in this pulpit 
again if I did not believe fully and entirely in the abso- 
lute divinity of Jesus Christ ; all depends on that. But 
let us not lose His humanity. Through the Middle 
Ages the Church exalted the divinity of Christ so ab- 
solutely that He was lifted above the reach of man with 
His woes and sins and temptations, and humanity turned 
to Mary for comfort. God was so far off, and Christ 
was the Judge, and there was no one for weary humanity 
to touch but Mary, — she would pity ! 

What was the Unitarian movement, but the reaction 
in New England against an undue and one-sided view 
taken of Christ's divinity in the Congregational Church? 
It was a protest against a mathematical God. Let us 



1 Last public service in Brick Church, Wednesday evening, 
February 20, 1901. 

265 



266 FEAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



who inherit the results of the over-emphasis — no, it can- 
not be over-emphasized — but let us who stand for the 
historical contention for the divinity of Christ be careful 
that we do not rob our God of His greatest sacrifice, the 
exhibition of His greatest love. 

Christ came with a human nature that He might show 
us what humanity should be, — He was a pattern of what 
it all meant to God. He was divine, but He emptied 
Himself and reduced Himself to the dimensions of hu- 
manity, and took the form of a servant and the likeness 
of man. He was not a true man if He had with Him 
an ever-active divine nature on which He could call at 
any time. He was made in all things like unto His 
brethren, wherefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren, 
and He would be if He were not a fair " brother. Do 
not be distressed because the many parts of this wondrous 
truth cannot be harmonized by our limited knowledge. 
In this world, truth zigzags, — ^like a yacht that tacks first 
to the right and then to the left. The ideal course is 
straight ; but the boat approximates, and reaches the 
harbour. You who have learned to ride a bicycle, know 
how hard it was at first, how impossible, to keep a 
straight line ; but after a time your curves straightened 
out, and now it is easy enough to do ; you don't even 
think of it — it does itself ; it has become automatic. So 
truth zigzags in this world of beginnings and incom- 
pleteness. Be patient ; it will all straighten out, and the 
many curves and doublings of truth will be seen to form 
a direct line to God. Then we may understand the 
union of the human and the divine natures in Christ. 

Jesus was human. As a boy He had to learn obedi- 
ence. There is scarcely anything more suggestive than 
that account of the return from the Temple when He 



GETHSEM ANE 



267 



was twelve years old. What insight came to Him then 
we can never know — what sudden glimpse of His unique 
relation to the Father — what swift knowledge of His life- 
work — these things we can never know. But it was not 
yet His hour, and He turned from it all and went back 
to Nazareth and was subject to His parents, — was sub- 
ject, learned obedience. 

A little boy who was playing about a room — he was 
celebrating his sixth birthday — suddenly stopped his 
play, and, coming over to his mother, said, Mamma, 
Jesus was once six years old, wasn't He?" — Yes, Jesus 
was once six years old, and the little boy had learned 
much when he realized that, and we all get our first 
glimpse of reality when we get hold of the humanity of 
Jesus. Once six years old I And He had to learn to 
shut doors, and pick up things, and be orderly, just as 
any little boy does now. 

Then there came another and a harder lesson in obe- 
dience. In the wilderness the temptation came to Him 
as it comes to us. It appealed to the lust of the flesh and 
the lust of the eye and the pride of life. You remember 
the three temptations. Satan comes to Him and says, 
" If you be the Son of God, command that these stones 
be made bread," and there were the smooth little flat 
stones making their unconscious appeal and increasing 
the hunger, because they looked so like bread. But He 
said, "Man shall not live by bread alone; My Father 
will take care of Me ; My power was not given Me to 
use for Myself, but to be given out endlessly for others." 
Then the devil takes Him to a pinnacle of the Temple 
and says, " Cast Thyself down, for it is written, ^ He 
shall give His angels charge concerning Thee. They 
shall bear Thee up in their arms, lest Thou dash Thy 



268 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



foot against a stone.'" Jesus says, "It is written, 
' Thou shalt not.' My Father will take care of Me. I 
have no right to use My power for Myself or put His 
power to the test. My life is Mine to do His will, not to 
risk." Then Satan tried again. He took Him up on 
an exceedingly high mountain, and " showed Him all 
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time" — as 
the Greek means, ''in a blink." Satan said, **I have 
power and authority — all this is mine, and shall be yours 
if you will fall down and worship me." But Jesus an- 
swered, "It is written, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve'" — always 
foiling Satan by obedience. He would win His kingdom 
in His Father's way. 

Then we read this curious expression: "This com- 
mandment received I of My Father." He uses it in 
connection with His death : — "I lay down My life : no 
man taketh it from Me. I have power to lay it down, 
and I have power to take it again. This commandment 
received I of My Father." Then, the yielding up of 
His life was the supreme act of obedience. " Lo, I 
come to do Thy will ! " When Peter, in his impulsive 
love, said, " O, Lord, no — pity Thyself, don't let it be 
— this shall not be unto Thee! " His words seem to 
have opened up to Christ again a vision of what obedience 
meant, and He recognized Satan's presence. He turned 
with sharp pain to Peter and said, "Get thee behind Me, 
Satan ! This is not of God." He felt Satan near Him 
in the person of the disciple to whom just before — almost 
in the same breath, we might say — He had promised, 
" Thou art rock ! And on such rocklike characters will 
I build My Church." But he was Satan's subtle 
channel now. 



GETPISEMANE 



269 



Sometimes the obedience is a great and overmastering 
joy. Once Jesus was travelling up through Samaria, and 
He was tired, and sat down to rest at Jacob's Well. — 
(Just think ! 1 myself hope soon to see Jacob's Well. 
I can hardly realize it. I have been so busy that I have 
had no time to think of myself. It has been so hard to 
get away and not leave my work with ragged edges. As 
Robert Louis Stevenson says, 

«* I leave my work with ragged edge, 
For sunset comes too soon." 

I have had no time to dream, but I shall sit by the well 
where Jesus sat.) — He sat there, then, hungry, thirsty, 
tired, and His disciples had gone to the town to buy 
food. But as He waited. He forgot all His weariness and 
hunger in giving to a sinful woman a draught of that 
water of which, if a soul once drink, it never thirsts again. 
And when the disciples returned He could not eat ; He 
was no longer hungry ; He had meat to eat that they 
knew not of. But they learned to know, and you know. 
The spiritual feeding in communion with God, in 
obedience to Him in our activities, can actually supply 
the physical need or remove it, and there is no joy com- 
mensurate with it. I dehght to do Thy will, O my 
God ! " 

In that wonderful twelfth chapter of John, we see one 
of the struggles for obedience. Some Greeks desired to 
see Him, and He recognized in them the representatives 
of the uttermost parts of the earth. He suddenly realized 
how far His arms must stretch, how far His love must 
reach out beyond the little family in which He had dwelt 
till then, before the fulness of His mission should be ac- 
complished. And He argues it all out with Himself — 



270 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, it abideth 
alone ; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit ! Ah, 
how am I straitened till this be accomplished ! How 
can I bear it ? What shall I say ? Father, save me from 
this hour"? — There was the human shrinking, and 
then the certain submission — But for this cause came I 
unto this hour : this will I say : Father, glorify Thy 
name." Again, obedience had triumphed. 

Now we come to this final lesson in obedience, where, 
during that dread hour in Gethsemane, in some way, 
some mysterious way, the Father God made to meet on 
Him the iniquity of us all. He had never sinned, but 
He had groaned in spirit over the results of sin ; He had 
wept and sighed at an open grave ; He had been troub- 
led and had trembled before the exhibitions of sin ; He 
had been moved with indignation and pity by its pres- 
ence ; He had felt virtue go out of Him as He came in con- 
tact with it ; He had stood close to sickness and physical 
despair ; but now, now, the Father was making to meet 
on Him the iniquities of us all. He was beginning to 
feel in Himself this awful load that made redemption 
necessary. Once when the priests had brought to Him 
the woman taken in sin, in sheer manly embarrassment 
He had drawn back and hung His head and stooped down 
and written on the ground — the shame flushing through 
and through His manly purity, that men could so hound 
an unfortunate and sinful woman. He could not look at 
them ; He could not face them, but wrote in the sand. 
But now, into His very being comes the overwhelming 
blackness — we cannot understand, but in some sense He 
felt in His very self the load of human guilt and sin and 
shame ; it focused on Him and He bowed before it. If 
you who are fathers and mothers have ever sat by the side 



GETHSEM AIsTE 



271 



of a dearly loved child whose life is ruined and disgraced, 
and have tried to comfort her, and have started to pray. 

Forgive her," and then swiftly changed it into, "O 
Father, forgive us ! " you know in some dim way all 
that humanity can know of the awful burden of Christ. 

I do not understand the Atonement, but I do know this 
— that God must justify Himself as well as me, that He 
has other considerations and obligations to meet besides 
those for me. This is so important that I will repeat it 
— I do not understand the Atonement, but this I under- 
stand, that God must justify Himself as well as me — not 
justify His punishment of me, His severity. His justice, but 
justify His mercy towards me j and this meant the great 
load of sin imposed on some one willing and able to bear 
it. This suggestion is what is called in theological lan- 
guage a theodicy — a justification of God's plan; but 
we can never explain it. 

And now, what was it that Christ so dreaded ? What 
was it that wrung His soul with anguish ? From what 
did He pray to be delivered ? Not from the death of the 
cross, — that I am convinced of. I do not see how you 
can make Scripture self- consistent if you take that view. 
He knew that Calvary was ahead of Him. He had 
Himself foretold it: *'This is My body broken for 
you " ; ''I give My life as a ransom for many " ; I 
lay down My life"; "The Son of Man is to be cruci- 
fied " ; I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
Me" : — He knew all that. But we see Him now as 

the lamb slain from the foundation of the world." — 
What mystery is this ! And yet it is a mystery that we 
who are His can all in some sense understand. The 
lamb slain from the foundation of the world — the marks 
of sacrifice upon Him from all eternity, and to be con- 



272 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



summated now. Can He bear it ? Will He live through 
it ? Can His body stand it ? Or will He fail before the 
supreme sacrifice is accomplished ? He is confused and 
troubled and anguished by the horror of the unexpected 
and wholly new experience of sin in Himself, and fears 
He cannot bear it, but will break down there and all will 
be lost. Note how He acts — as you, perhaps have acted 
before an operation. — Can I stand it? How soon will 
it be? What does it mean? And you walk up and 
down in your nervous restlessness. You cannot sit still. 
You will not run from the ordeal, but can you endure it? 
What is the outcome to be ? — That, or a like experience. 
— So Christ walks back and forth — comes to His disciples 
for help and sympathy — goes back into the shadows and 
prays — lies prone on the ground in His agony and entreats, 

O My Father, if it be possible, take this cup from Me," 
and the swift ''nevertheless, not My will — not even now 
and here — but Thine be done." This must belt, for we 
read in Hebrews that His prayer was heard — " Who in the 
days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and sup- 
plications with strong crying and tears unto Him who was 
able to save Him from death — able to save Him from 
death — and was heard in that He feared"; — note, He 
"was heard," and yet He was not saved from Calvary — 
no, because He never prayed to be saved from it, but to 
be given strength to go through it. Look at the lan- 
guage of Luke, the physician, the technical term not used 
by Matthew and Mark, His intense anguish forced the 
blood out through the pores of the skin. So near was His 
body to collapse. 

At last the anguish is over ; He has been heard and 
answered. He comes out of the struggle, strong. He 
has asked for physical strength and it has been given 



GETHSEMANE 



273 



him, — " There appeared unto Him an angel, strengthen- 
ing Him." Why did He say to His diciples, Sleep on 
now"? Because He was strong; He needed them no 
longer. A few minutes later, the officers coming to take 
Him, staggered back before His majesty ; when He said, 
I am He," they went backwards and fell to the ground. 
And after all the agony of that night, and lack of food 
and sleep, and in spite of torture and crucifixion, He 
yielded up His spirit with a great shout. That was not 
the cry of an exhausted man. God had answered His 
prayer. 

These were the two points of His prayer, — If it be 
possible" and ''nevertheless." The first is the natural 
human cry, and we all have a right to it if we are chil- 
dren of God. Go to Him with your trouble and ask 
Him to help you out. Don't be reconciled to God's 
will in advance. If your child is dying ; if your busi- 
ness is at the breaking-point ; if cherished hopes are 
about to fail you, don't say, His will be done; it does 
not matter." It does matter ! It matters greatly to 
you, and He knows and cares. Go to Him and say, 
" O my Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from 
me," and if it is possible, He will, for He is a good 
Father. And if it is not possible, /hen come with your 
"nevertheless," and lay down your own life, or a life 
dearer to you than your own, if He ask it. 

This is what Sunday's sermon meant. Your life must 
be laid down, little by little or all at once ; but let it" be 
according to God's will, and learn obedience by the 
things you suffer. Say with Him, " Lo, I come to do 
Thy will," and whether it be with the gladness of serv- 
ice at Jacob's Well or whether it lead into Gethsemane, 
still say bravely, "Nevertheless ! " 



274 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAI^^^ 



Jesus was calm for Calvary ; He had won the victory 
m Gethsemane : and you will be calm for whatever ex- 
perience He sends you. And let me say, as I have said 
a thousand times before, — God's will is a thing to be 
donCy not suffered. Jesus well knew that He was not to 
sit down calmly and suffer His Father's will; He had 
something to do. And if you submit to your Father's 
will, you will have something to do. 

We do not know what is ahead of us. We cannot 
turn over the pages as we do with a book. You know 
we often turn to the end to see how it comes out, and 
people say, O that's mean! you mustn't." But I al- 
ways do. I never read a book without reading the last 
chapter first, and if that is sad I don't read the book. 
Why should I ? I see enough real stories every day that 
bring the blood to my heart and the tears to my eyes, 
and when I read I want something bright and restful. 
But we can't do that with our lives, — we can't *'peek," 
as the children say. We must read it page by page. 
Then let us read it bravely. Not only by what we may 
yet mean to each other of increasing love and helpful- 
ness, but also by what we may mean to our Lord, I be- 
seech you to make this the expression of your truest desire, 

Lo, I come to do Thy will ! " Let us follow our Lord, 
and help each other, and pray for one another, and may 
the Lord watch between you and me while we are absent 
from one another ! 



We give to Thee of otir substance. It was 
dear to its because it was Thy gift ; it is dearer 
now because accepted by Thee^ 



THE PARABLE OF THE POUNDS 

Luke 19 : 11-27. 

WE have a fine lesson to-night. Well, of 
course, it is in the Bible. But it is particu- 
larly fine to-night. In verse eleven, " these 
things" means the story of Zaccheus. As Christ was 
going on to Jerusalem He spoke a parable, and deftly 
used history. " We will not have this man to reign 
over us ' ' was a reference to an event in current history, 
and would catch their attention, for they were all in- 
terested in the attempt of Archelaus to hold the throne 
of the Herods. It may have been a sort of warning to 
the people. An embassy of about five hundred men had 
hastened to Rome to withstand the application there of 
the new king, — a risky thing to do, for when he returned 
(and he would) he would be interested in the protes- 
tants. Otherwise, the parable does not seem to need 
this incident. Perhaps it had some reference to the at- 
tempt of James and John to secure positions of influence 
and power in the coming kingdom. Salome thought 
that if her voice were added to that of her sons they 
might get ahead of Peter who seemed to have right of 
way. They all misunderstood what such positions 
meant. Addison said long ago that the noblest emolu- 
ments of high office were the opportunities of doing 
good, — a truth not realized in our political life. So 
don't let us blame James and John too severely. 

Well, the king returns — It came to pass that when 
275 



276 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



he returned." Our Lord is coming again ! This is the 
glorious hope that He holds always before us. Death is 
not a glorious hope. There is a hope that triumphs 
over death. Physical death is the debt of nature; 
spiritual death is alienation from God. But there is a 
glorious hope that / do not die at all, though physical 
death overtakes me. There is the more glorious hope 
that He will come again before I die, and then I need 
not die at all — not even my body. And He will come. 
" The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of 
God, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in 
the air." That is our glorious hope. 

Archbishop Trench says of it — A thing that is pos- 
sible any day, and impossible no day." When I was a 
little boy, my mother used always to tell me to put my 
clothes in order when I went to bed, " for the Lord 
might come to-night, and you would want to be ready to 
meet Him." 

Then Jesus went on with His story, for He generally 
taught in stories ; that is what parables are. Certain 
truths are emphasized by the form into which they are 
thrown. We are just beginning to learn the lessons of 
Froebel and Pestalozzi : — not an abstraction first, but an 
object. We are learning to teach children by the natural 
method. We put a block or slips of paper or modeling 
clay before them, and lead them on to the abstract. 
Jesus told a story and taught a principle. 

The man who gained ten pounds and the man who 
gained five pounds are equally commended. It is not 
the amount we return the Master, but the fidelity we 
show in His service. Yet none of us is as faithful as he 



THE PAEABLE OF THE POUNDS 277 



might be ; none of us will return all he might : at the 
best, much that we might have developed by greater 
faithfulness has been stunted. Don't you suppose the 
man who gained five pounds wished it had been ten ? 

Then the third servant came, the one who had done 
nothing, and he said, Behold!'^ The one who had 
done the least made the most fuss. He talked more than 
all the rest put together ! ''Behold, here is thy pound. 
I did not lose it. It is here just as you gave it to me." 
Did not lose it ! As if that were to his credit I But 
God does not give you your talents to keep, but to use. 
It is not enough that you return them ; you must return 
them with their natural increase. The figure of money 
is well chosen here, for money is vital ; it grows and be- 
gets offspring. " I should have had mine own with 
usury." Usury simply means the increase or return 
from use — interest is the modern term ; it is not the same 
as usurious. The word used here for usury means also 
" children," " progeny," and the master had a right to 
look for legitimate interest on his investments. 

The servant pleads, ''I kept it laid safely away in a 
napkin." The word for napkin is sudarium^ and means 
the napkin or handkerchief used to wipe off the sweat of 
toil. The same word is used in the legend of St. Veronica 
— the handkerchief that some pitying soul lent to our 
Lord as He toiled up to Calvary under His cross. The 
servant, however, had not put it to its proper use, and so 
disclosed his double shame, — he had not toiled, and his 
pound had lain useless. And his excuse was, *' I knew 
you demanded the impossible; therefore, I gave up." 
His master said, "Therefore, you should have put more 
energy into your work." Of course he could convict 
him out of his own mouth. There are more ways than 



278 FRAGMENTS THAT EEMAIK 



one of securing the interest. If you have no ability to 
do, attach yourself to some one who has. If you have 
only one talent, a half-talent, a quarter-talent, a possi- 
bility of a talent — use that. You will be judged accord- 
ingly, — not according to what you have not, but ac- 
cording to what you have. 

Attach yourself to some one who has the organizing 
faculty. In a church, the pastor makes a good bank. 
Come to me. I will set you at work. Sometimes men 
say to me that they would like to give, but their lives do 
not bring them into contact with such cases as need help, 
and they really do not know where to give. If these 
things are not in the runways of your life, apply to me. 

In the East in Bible times there was no bank, in our 
modern sense. The usurers or money-changers sat at 
tables on which the money was placed in little heaps, and 
when a man failed, his table was broken to pieces to in- 
dicate that he might go into some other business. I think 
it quite likely that our term ''broken bank" had its 
origin there. What is " bankrupt," rupture, but a broken 
bank ? 

Then Christ enunciates the great law that, He who 
useth not, even that which he hath shall be taken away ; 
which is just and right. 

[The hymn beginning : 

" O Lord of heaven and earth and sea," 

was then sung ; and after the singing Dr. Babcock took 
exception to the sentiment expressed in the fifth stanza : 

*< We lose what on ourselves we spend."] 

Many of our hymns are beautiful and helpful, but re- 



THE PAEABLE OF THE POUNDS 279 



member, they are not Scripture ; they are not inspired ; 
sometimes they are not true. Much of our hymnology 
represents heaven as mere rest, quiescence, as great mul- 
titudes of redeemed ones singing. Now, singing may be 
truest worship, but they don't sing a// the time. No, 
heaven is increased activity, where 

" Every power finds sweet employ 
In that eternal world of joy." 

Perhaps some of you feel as if you would like to rest for 
an 3eon or two. But we shall not need it. The Master 
will set us at work anew, and it will be work without 
weariness, for then we can employ "the full-grown ener- 
gies of heaven." 

" For doubtless unto thee is given 
A life that bears immortal fruit, 
In such vast offices, as suit 
The full-grown energies of heaven." 

That is virile, dynamic. I always like to send that to 
those who are suffering bereavement. It gives outreach. 

The hymn we sung says, " We lose what on ourselves 
we spend"! Not at all. Many an investment for our- 
selves yields a splendid return for the owner as well as 
for the steward ; and the estate is taxed in part to sup- 
port the steward. 

Whatever tends to make me a healthy and happy 
steward, God freely allows me ; but I doubt whether it 
is ever right for you to spend anything on yourselves that 
does not make you better men. Think this out, and 
draw some fair line. 

The head of a business house sends a drummer out on 
the road. He returns with his itemized bill of expenditure, 



280 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



and his employer notes — " Ah, there you hired a carriage. 
Was that necessary ? and the dinner ? ' ' The man explains 
that the former saved him important time and the latter 
secured a valuable customer, and his employer is satis- 
fied. He knows that all reasonable outlay secures better 
returns for the business, and a good business man wants 
his representative to be contented and feel unhampered, 
but — there must be no imposition ! After all, the prop- 
erty is not yours, but the owner's. You say, *'My 
power, and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this 
wealth." No, you forget; it is He that giveth you the 
power to get wealth. I have nothing that is not my 
Lord's. Jesus uses this figure frequently — now it is a 
steward in charge of property, now a servant in care of a 
house. 

Notice the three parables He gives us on this subject, 
and so closely allied. First, there is the parable of " The 
Talents" — varying gifts, and the worker is rewarded for 
his faithfulness. In the parable of " The Pounds," it is 
equal gifts, and the reward is for industry. And in the 
parable of The Workers in the Vineyard," where they 
who come in at the eleventh hour are paid exactly as they 
who toiled all day, the reward is for the spirit in which 
the work was done. You know how when you go into a 
hotel, it is the pleasant, obliging man to whom you turn 
for help. It is so much more agreeable to be waited on 
by a man who responds to your need with alacrity and, 
apparently, no thought of a tip." (I say apparently !) 

I have one or two corollaries to offer on the teachings 
of these parables. 

I. Use your pound. Some of you simply let it lie 
fallow. How much do you know about your own 
property and the needs of your tenants ? A man interested 



THE PARABLE OF THE POUNDS 281 



in these questions, and anxious to interest a friend who 
owned a great deal of property, asked him to take a walk 
with him. The friend consented, and was shown some 
model tenements, with all their comforts. Then they 
went down to his own property, and when he saw things 
there he said, '* I am ashamed. I did not realize how 
things were. Thank you for the lesson. I will have 
that air-shaft removed, and open courts built — or, better, 
the whole thing shall come down." Can't you set some 
one at work considering his talent ? Some men are 
always clutching. If they could be suddenly robbed of 
all that with which conventionality clothes them, they 
would simply be clutchers. When Peabody saw what a 
surgical operation it was to some men to give, he made 
up his mind that he must train himself to enjoy giv- 
ing. 

II. The diffident man is in the greatest danger. He 
says, *'One is only one. One and one are only two ! " 
But do what you can. When a soldier was ordered to 
the charge and objected, " My sword is too short," his 
commanding officer replied, " Put another step behind 
it ! " That means, put moral heroism behind all your 
defects and deficiencies. Do what you can. Entrust 
your limitations and deficiencies and weaknesses to the 
Lord, — He can use a willing weakling. If the older men 
will not take part in the meeting, do not let that deter 
you younger men. It means growth to you. Take care 
of your spiritual investments. 

HI. But another point, — by entrusting all to Him 
you learn patience. " Let patience have her perfect 
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting noih- 
ingy James speaks as if this were the crowning virtue 
of the Christian life. Work is normal. Even a lazy 



282 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



man will acknowledge that, after you once get him at it. 
But patience is a slowly acquired virtue. It must grow. 

I went to see an invalid this week. She finds it hard 
to be unable to do her accustomed work in the church 
and at home. I said to her, " God told you to work, 
and nobly you responded. Now, He wants you to learn 
a harder lesson for Him, — stand and wait." 

He has lessons for you to learn, too — energy an^ 
patience. 



** May we dispense our stewardship generously y 
not leaving too much behind us when we set 
forth on our new adventure in that new lifcy to 
cause cojnplications for those who come after us^ 



THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS 
Matthew 25 : 14-30. 

WE have to-night for our lesson the parable of 
The Talents. The kingdom of heaven is 
like, is like, is like, and so often the likeness 
is expressed in commercial terms. It seems to me that 
I have presented this thought to you again and again, 
but I cannot help it, for it recurs again and again in these 
last lessons presented by Christ, as though He would say 
as His final and supreme counsel, Use your talent; in- 
vest it ; secure interest on it ; let Me have My own back 
with its natural increase when I return. Go and trade 
with it." 

Christ says of the five-talent man, "He went and 
traded." That is truly Oriental ; that is the way an 
Oriental boasts of his wealth ; he travels. He does not 
have the fine houses and establishments of the Occidental, 
so this is his way of exploiting his wealth. 

One digged in the earth and there bestowed his Lord's 
money. The eastern savings-bank is a hole in the 
ground — it is the only place of safety there, but it is not 
a place of safety for your talent. Go to that hole, and 
get your talent out. Don't plead, "I return it just as I 
got it" — that is shameful and lazy. I like Carlyle's 
rugged ''Produce ! Produce ! " Do something, or you 
will bring on moral atrophy. " I would," you say ; " if 
283 



284 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



I had that man's talent, I would do his work. If I had 
that man's money, I would be generous." No, you 
wouldn't unless you are now. Faithfulness is tested as 
truly by the little as the great. Use what you have. 
There is no place for the comparative degree in a 
Christian's parsing. There is only the positive degree 
of fact and the superlative degree of enthusiasm ; but the 
comparative degree is vulgar. You say, But I can't do 
anything. I don't profess to be able to effect results." 
You must use what you have, just the same. Responsibili- 
ties are not created by professions. More than that. You 
are bound to trade with your Lord's money ; for, remember, 
it is His, not yours at all. He called His own servants 
and delivered unto them His goods." And if you can't 
originate, you must cooperate with some one who can. 
You will cause some one trouble ? Well, some one will 
be troubled anyhow, and he would like to have some of it 
that way. 

And the invested money grows. Enlarge your horizon. 
You have only a little gift for music ? Then use that 
little for Him — don't hide it. There are places where 
your little is needed. There is a splendid chance to serve 
Him in this church. The East and West side work — 
the two handles of the Lord's plough ! 

Your talent may be that of money-getting, of inven- 
tion, of political or social influence. Whatever it is, use 
it for Him. It is His entrusted talent. I refuse to ac- 
knowledge that the consecration of a minister is any 
different from that of a teacher or a business man. It is 
not what we serve with, but how we serve. Sir Humphrey 
Davy had little more than a tin pan and a candle to work 
with, but he invented the miners' lamp, and has incalcu- 
lably increased the security of life in the mines. Faraday 



THE PAKABLE OF THE TALENTS 285 



worked as a bookbinder's apprentice. One day he chanced 
to notice an article in a book which interested him. It was 
on electricity. He used his own spark of genius to create 
other sparks, and he finally became a Leyden jar and 
electrified the world ! 

My most important talent, I feel convinced, is my 
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and every one of His followers 
has that ; and my most awful responsibility is the use I 
make of that knowledge. 

The faithful servant is the one the Master watches ap- 
provingly. If we are faithful, then we shall win the 
Master's smile, and smiles are divine, you know. Have 
you ever seen a child bringing up work to a teacher, and 
noted how she waited to catch the teacher's smile, and 
how when it came, her face lighted up, and she went 
away happy? Don't you want to win the Master's 
smile ? Don't you want to make Him smile ? 

The faithful servant will be glad to meet Him. His 
work was not perfect, but it was intentionally, approxi- 
mately, progressively so. Like the twelfth and fifteenth 
in music. They are not harmony, but they help to make 
harmony. 

People of one talent are what we want, are what the 
world needs. There are more of them than of the five 
and ten-talent folk, and enough of the single water-drops 
make the flood. 



" Thou hast known disappointments afid disillusiofts 
and betrayal and broken friendships. Thou art 
touched, not with the fact, but the feeling of our 
infirmities y 

THE TEN VIRGINS 
Matthew 25 : 1-13. 

THIS parable of the Ten Virgins has a curious 
association for me. The first time I can re- 
member hearing it was when a stranger spoke 
on it in our old church at home. He had a curious 
habit of hissing his s's. A sudden consciousness of life 
came to me then, and there comes such a time in every 
child's life, when a film breaks, and he is thenceforth a 
man. How beautifully Wordsworth has said this in his 
ode on Immortality " : — 

" Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : 
The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And Cometh from afar ; 
Not in entire forgetfulness, 

And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 

From God, who is our home. 
Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 

Upon the growing boy ; 
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, — 

He sees it in his joy; 
The youth, who daily farther from the east 
Must travel, still is Nature's priest, 
And by the vision splendid 
Is on his way attended ; 
At length the man perceives it die away. 
And fade into the light of common day." 

Again we have in this parable the likeness : — " The 
286 



THE TEN YIEGIKS 



287 



kingdom of heaven is like — is like," — and here it is pre- 
paredness. The wise virgins took oil in their lamps. 
The oil always represents the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of 
Jesus. The Spirit is the omnipresence of the humanity 
of Christ, and we all can have a full supply of His 
power ; we can always have this oil in our lamps. 

Notice the force of " but." In reading your Bibles it 
will add greatly to your interest and pleasure to note these 
little connectives ; they are very suggestive. In this par- 
able, the **but " each time introduces a contrast between 
preparedness and unpreparedness. The foolish took no 
oil, but the wise, etc., the foolish said, Give us of your oil, 
but the wise answered, etc. 

Doors are opening or closing all the time in life, and 
which they shall do for you depends on the way you 
grasp or fail to grasp the opportunities that come to you. 
Be watchful ; be ready to act. 

What is your attitude towards the future life ? Some 
say it is a certain uncertainty. No, it is an uncertain 
certainty, — uncertain as to when it will come, but certain 
to come. On which will you reckon ? For which will 
you prepare ? We urge men to accept Christ, to accept 
Him now, and they say, " Well, we will think about it," 
or, "Yes, I know it ought to be attended to." Why, 
you wouldn't act that way five minutes about your health 
or your wife's health or your business. But in this most 
important matter you delay, and so you fail to be ready 
for this uncertain certainty. 

" And five of them were wise and five were foolish." 
In which class do you belong ? for we are constantly be- 
ing classified, constantly being " assigned to our station " 
.whether we will or not. Are you wise or foolish, careful 
or careless, thoughtful or thoughtless ? 



288 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



At length the uncertain certainty came to pass, — at 
midnight the Bridegroom came, and " the fooUsh said 
unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are 
gone out." Will you run such a risk in that hour ? No, 
it is not a risk ; it is certainty of failure. The wise 
could not share their oil ; oil is character, the result of 
the indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus. And in that su- 
preme hour, none can share with you their preparedness, 
for character is not transferable. In a sudden emer- 
gency you say to a friend, " O give me your calmness 
and poise!" He would, but he cannot. You must 
have oil in your vessel for your lamp. 

I am not an old man. I have had an uneventful life, 
but sorrow will probably come to me, — every one gets 
about as much as he can bear before he is through. I 
want to meet whatever experiences are ahead of me with 
fortitude, in such a way as to honour Him whose name 
and sign I bear. 

Prepare now for the emergencies which are sure to 
come. Prepare in trifles, so that you are ready for crises. 
If your oatmeal is burned at breakfast, take it calmly ; 
then when your house is afire, you can meet that with 
calmness and composure, too. 

The wise virgins attended to their supply of oil long be- 
fore the midnight came. You must get in the daylight the 
oil you will need at night — in the darkness. If you 
were suddenly called on to speak comfort to a dying man, 
what could you say? Could you say, "This I know, I 
know^^ ? O I covet for you perfection as Christians ! 

You know not the hour when your Lord will come, 
but you know there is an hour, and — the Bridegroom sets 
the hour of His coming. 



RABBI BEN EZRA 



** Help us to reach out past the things we can- 
not understand to the God we trust. We thank 
Thee for the passing of what changes ^ and the 
changelessness of what passes noty 



RABBI BEN EZRA 

AS next Sunday is review, and we have no reg- 
ular lesson, I have decided to take up with you 
to-night Browning's poem, Rabbi Ben Ezra," 
one of the most familiar and most helpful of all he wrote. 
Browning is one of the latter-day prophets. Words- 
worth and Tennyson also belong in this classification. 
The former is simple and direct ; the latter is compressed 
but easily understandable ; Browning is intricate. I 
think it was a trick of his mind. He saw things that 
way and stated them with little reference to their clear- 
ness, trusting to their strength and truth. This poem 
is an epitome of his teaching. Learn it, and learn 
also '^Prospice," "Saul," and "A Death in the 
Desert." These are some of the simpler of his sus- 
tained efforts. 

The lack of the present day is the lack of sustained 
thought. Thanks to the — if I may use *' thanks " in such 
a connection. — Thanks to the light newspapers and 
lighter of the magazines, all power of concentrated 
thought is being lost. Children will not go through a 
book unless it is interesting enough to excite them. 
This light reading is demoralizing or, rather, demen- 
talizing. 

Every stanza of this vigorous poem might be sum- 
marized by a verse of Scripture. We will take it up 
stanza by stanza. 

291 



292 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



I 

Grow old along with me ! 
The best is yet to be, 

The last of life, for which the first was made : 
Our times are in His hand 
Who saith " A whole I planned. 

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor 
be afraid I " 

You have got to grow old ; you can't escape it ; such 
is the law of life. But don't be afraid. The God who 
has delivered, will deliver. You would not stop at the 
beginning of Hfe, would you ? Well, this whole life is 
only a beginning. God has His best things still in store 
for you. Be ready to see all He has to show you. 

II 

Not that, amassing flowers, 

Youth sighed " Which rose make ours. 

Which lily leave and then as best recall ? " 
Not that, admiring stars, 
It yearned " Nor Jove, nor Mars ; 

Mine be some figured flame which blends, tran- 
scends them all ! " 

You choose the rose and then spend your life regretting 
that you did not choose the lily. Don't spoil your life 
by such vain and foolish regrets. *' In all thy ways ac- 
knowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." A 
good man's probabilities are the certainties of God's 
providence. After you have decided a thing according 
to your best judgment, and prayerfully, don't fret — 
whatever the result. When all seems to go wrong, don't 
feel that all is wrong. Suppose you are cast into the 
furnace, that is where steel is made. Suppose the plough- 



EABBI BEN EZEA 



293 



share does cut through your turf, that is where wheat 
springs up. 

And don't spoil your life, on the other hand, by im- 
practicable visions. Your particular star cannot outshine 
all others. Do not set yourself to make yours some com- 
bination of Jove and Mars, exceeding either, for you can- 
not do it, and your life will drift purposelessly away 
while you fret about it. Do the best you can, and then, 
forgetting the things that are behind, press forward. 

Ill 

Not for such hopes and fears 
Annulling youth's brief years, 

Do I remonstrate : folly wide the mark I 
Rather I prize the doubt 
Low kinds exist without, 

Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. 

The hopes and fears will develop you, but develop- 
ment means pain. If we were merely clods it would not 
be so, but we are clods with sparks and cannot hope to 
go through life untroubled " ; only " low kinds " can 
do that. Be glad you have the spark. 

IV 

Poor vaunt of life indeed. 
Were man but formed to feed 

On joy, to solely seek and find and feast: 
Such feasting ended, then 
As sure an end to men ; 

Irks care the crop-full bird ? Frets doubt the 
maw-crammed beast ? 

Of course not ; they are clods without sparks. All a 
bird wants is a full crop. Does the beast with a crammed 



294 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



maw have any doubt of the felicity of life ? But we are 
men, and need something beside feasting — even on joy. 
A witty woman once said, There are four important 
events in every day of a man's life. The first is Eat^ 
and I forget the other three." Don't be animated 
stomachs. 

Rejoice we are allied 

To that which doth provide 

And not partake, effect and not receive I 
A spark disturbs our clod ; 
Nearer we hold of God 

Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must 
believe. 

The intensity of life annuls the expansiveness of time. 
That splendid absorption in life that makes you a co- 
worker with God, allies you with Him, and causes you to 
forget the needs of the body, the flight of time ! This is 
the reason God is never weary; He is so intensely at 
work. 

That spark will give us no rest ; it disturbs us, but it 
makes us give, not take, — that is what God does. 

VI 

Then welcome each rebuff 

That turns earth's smoothness rough, 

Each sting that bids, Nor sit nor stand, but go ! 
Be our joy three parts pain ! 
Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 

Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never 
grudge the throe ! 

Have you a pain in your body ? It is a call on the 



EABBI BEJST EZEA 



295 



soul to triumph over it. Have you lassitude dragging 
you down ? It is a chance for you to show the donainant 
power of the spirit. Keep your spirit on top. Keep 
your body under. Keep yourself under control. Go to 
bed early. Yes, this is hard in the city, I know, but 
you would be niore spiritually-minded men if you did, 
less irritable, more composed, the nerves not worn to 
such a fine edge. 

Even if your joys are three parts pain, what of it? 
They are the growing pains of the soul. Be glad of 
them. Rejoice that God has a development to work out 
in you, — you are not yet a finished product. 

VII 

For thence, — a paradox 

Which comforts while it mocks, — 

Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail : 
What I aspired to be 
And was not, comforts me : 

A brute I might have been, but would not sink 
i' the scale. 

Seeming failure is not always real failure. There is a 
victory of struggle as well as of attainment. You say 
you have attempted so much, and accompHshed so little. 
But if your attempts have been earnest, you are a more 
accomplished person thereby. 

<'A brute I might have been"; yes, and you might 
succeed as a brute, but would you want to succeed on 
that plane ? Would you not rather even fail on a higher 
plane ? Shall we let the body rule ? 

See Joseph. He had his purple aspirations, but he 
drew back from temptation with the thought, How can 
I do this great wrong and sin against God ! " 



296 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



♦ VIII 
What is he but a brute 
Whose flesh hath soul to suit, 

Whose spirit works lest legs and arms want play ? 
To man, propose this test — 
Thy body at its best, 

How far can that project thy soul on its lone way ? 

Did you ever wish, as you saw an animal resting, that 
you were a brute ? Perhaps I ought not to ask that ; but 
I have wished it — just for the utter rest that we men 
never know. 

" Thy body at its best " — think what it could do at its 
best ! Never harbour that false and ascetic teaching that 
the body is evil. Why, our bodies are the temples of 
the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is used to dwelling 
in a body. He dwelt in the Old Testament heroes, who 
were not always worthy. Christ was His perfect temple. 
He will dwell in your body if you will let Him, and as 
fully as you will let Him. No, the body is not evil ; it 
is good. But the body is my beast of burden — to be 
used, to be cared for, to be considered, but never to rule. 
I am to rule 

IX 

Yet gifts should prove their use : 
I own the Past profuse 

Of power each side, perfection every turn : 
Eyes, ears took in their dole. 
Brain treasured up the whole ; 

Should not the heart beat once, " How good to 
live and learn "? 

But this body is the channel of God's gifts, and He 
expects us not only to live, but "to live and learn" — 
leartiy that is the purpose of living. We are in school 



EABBI BEN EZEA 



297 



here. If in the Father's house are many mansions, in 
the Father's school are many benches, and we need all 
the school-training to enjoy the mansions. Be faithful ; 
learn your lessons; clench your hands on your hard 
bench, and hold on till the bell sounds. 

X 

Not once beat — Praise be Thine I 
I see the whole design ; 

I, who saw power, see now love perfect too : 
Perfect I call Thy plan : 
Thanks that I was a man ! 

Maker, remake, complete, — I trust what Thou 
shalt do ! 

Not once beat, but beat many times, as we increasingly 
realize the love as well as the power of God. "Thy 
plan," — think what it is. " We know that all things 
work together for good." After all, I would not be a 
brute ; thanks that I was a man — a man, even if it hurts. 
Complete Thy purpose in me ; carry it out to its far-off 
issue. I can trust Thee ; at least, I can learn to trust 
Thee. 

XI 

For pleasant is this flesh ; 
Our soul, in its rose- mesh 

Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest; 
Would we some prize might hold 
To match the manifold 

Possessions of the brute, — gain most, as we 
did best ! 

After our highest aspirations we still feel the downward 
pull of the flesh. The life of the flesh is pleasant and 
easy ; it is a rose-mesh and very ensnaring ; and we long 
to yield to its allurement. There is still a little leaning 



298 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



towards the brute-life, a little unacknowledged wish that 
we were not troubled with sparks. 

Manifold possessions of the brute," their instincts. 
If only we could be guided by instinct ! Their instincts 
are unfailing ; when they follow them, all goes well. 
Would we had some prize to match them ! But we have 
not. We cannot shift our responsibility. We are men, 
and every decision we make must be thought out. 

XII 

Let us not always say, 
" Spite of this flesh to-day 

I strove, made head, gained ground, upon the 
whole ! " 
As the bird wings and sings. 
Let us cry " All good things 

Are ours ; nor soul helps flesh more, now, than 
flesh helps soul ! " 

The body need not be a hindrance ; it may be the 
channel of God's choicest blessings, if it is kept in its 
place, made servant and not master. 

XIII 

Therefore I summon age 
To grant youth's heritage, 

Life's struggle having so far reached its term: 
Thence shall I pass, approved 
A man, for aye removed 

From the developed brute ; a god, though in 
the germ. 

You are reaching a transition period. You want to 
pass your examination. Don't you want to pass ''Ap- 
proved"? Then Christ can present you before His 
Father with great joy. 



EABBI BEN EZEA 



299 



XIV 

And I shall thereupon 
Take rest, ere I be gone 

Once more on my adventure brave and new: 
Fearless and unperplexed, 
When I w^age battle next, 

What vi^eapons to select, what armour to indue. 

This life is over, and I face the problem under other 
conditions. As I have told you before, my strongest 
feeling in regard to death is curiosity. I wouldn't be 
afraid ! I have to die. I know that. And I wouldn't 
be a coward ! 

" I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more, 
The best and the last ! " 

You get that in Browning, too. But I would like to 
know what is behind the door, in that other mansion of 
the Father's house. A sudden surprise of glory ? Well, 
1 cannot know now, and I am not in a hurry ; but it will 
be fine to know some time ! 

Do you remember Thomas Hook's epitaph ? — Here 
endeth the first lesson." After death comes the second. 
With the experience I have had, the struggle I have 
faced, I shall know just how to take up the next, whether 
here or there. 

XV 

Youth ended, I shall try 
My gain or loss thereby ; 

Leave the fire ashes ; what survives is gold : 
And I shall weigh the same. 
Give life its praise or blame : 

Young, all lay in dispute ; I shall know, being 
old. 



300 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN 



There are advantages in growing old. It settles many 
difficulties. It helps us to set the true value on things. 
We learn to distinguish gilt from gold. 

XVI 

For note, when evening shuts, 
A certain moment cuts 

The deed off, calls the glory from the gray s 
A whisper from the west 
Shoots — « Add this to the rest, 

Take it, and try its worth : here dies another 
day." 

Emerson says, *' Every day is a doomsday." If we 
realized this, we would take each day and try its worth 
as it came to us. Then we would do better work to- 
morrow. 

XVII 

So, still within this life. 
Though lifted o'er its strife. 

Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, 

This rage was right i' the main, 
That acquiescence vain : 

The Future I may face, now I have proved the 
Past." 

This attitude of calm review of our days, this testing 
of their real worth, lifts us above the strife of life. The 
Psalmist says, " So teach us to number our days that we 
may apply our hearts unto wisdom." But the review is 
not always what we would desire. " This rage was right 
in the main." On the whole, it was right to contend 
there ; but it was mean to truckle here. If I had it to 
do over, I would show a just indignation there, but I 
would try to be brave enough not to acquiesce here. 



EABBI BEN EZEA 



301 



XVIII 
For more is not reserved 
To man, with soul just nerved 

To act to-morrow what he learns to-day : 
Here, work enough to watch 
The Master work, and catch 

Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the toors 
true play. 

In all your work, watch some master-workman ; it is a 
great help and incentive. It adds dignity to your work — 
brings out hidden meaning in it. But Browning has 
written the word Master with a capital M, and so he in- 
tends it to mean all it can mean. We have one Master, 
and He works; yes, He watches the Father work, and 
whatsoever the Father doeth, that doeth the Son likewise. 
Look to Christ and watch Him work, and follow and 
imitate Him, that the beautiful continuity may not be 
broken. 

XIX 

As it was better, youth 

Should strive, through acts uncouth, 

Towards making, than repose on aught found 
made : 
So, better, age exempt 
From strife, should know, than tempt 

Further. Thou waitedst age; wait death nor 
be afraid ! 

Teach your children to make, to create. Don't always 
give them finished products to enjoy. They don't enjoy 
them half as well. Did you ever notice the unconscious 
look of pleased satisfaction that comes over the face of a 
child, when, after many discouraging defeats, he suc- 
ceeds in constructing something ? Leave him this joy. 



302 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



You don't want to grow old, but you must, so don't 
become restive and apprehensive about it. However, 
you may stop counting if you wish; that would be a 
good plan. That would give you something of the sense 
of God's eternity, His self-existence. 

XX 

Enough now if the Right 
And Good and Infinite 
Be named here, as thou call'st thy hand thine 
own, 

With knowledge absolute, 
Subject to no dispute 

From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel 
alone. 

It is good to be alone sometimes. All true natures 
crave it. So we come to know what Jesus meant when 
He said, And yet I am not alone, because the Father 
is with Me. ' ' The same idea is expressed in that most 
beautiful hymn by Mrs. Stowe : 

« Still, still with Thee." 
XXI 

Be there, for once and all, 
Severed great minds from small, 

Announced to each his station in the Past! 
Was I, the world arraigned. 
Were they, my soul disdained, 

Right ? Let age speak truth and give us peace 
at last. 

Another advantage of growing old — it teaches us to 
classify wisely and justly, to give things their proper 
value. The whole stanza is an expression of classifica- 



EABBIBENEZEA 303 

tion. There is always— there must be — classification. 
If we should try to ignore it, it would be forced on us. 
Our lives are full of it. Our very expressions, our daily 
talk, show it — good, bad ; beautiful, ugly. 

But where do you stand in the classification? Are 
you right or wrong in your attitude towards life, towards 
your brothers? Age will help you to decide; and so 
will watching the Master-workman who is continually 
classifying His apprentices — and He classifies according 
to faithfulness. 

XXII 

Now, who shall arbitrate ? 
Ten men love what I hate, 

Shun what I follow, slight what I receive-: 
Ten, who in ears and eyes 
Match me : we all surmise. 

They, this thing, and I, that : whom shall my 
soul believe ? 

Well, not any one who judges only by the outward ap- 
pearance and literal accomplishment. You may not 
make a living, but you can make a life. 

XXIII 

Not on the vulgar mass 

Called work," must sentence pass, 

Things done, that took the eye and had the price ; 
O'er which, from level stand, 
The low world laid its hand. 

Found straightway to its mind, could value in a 
trice : 

Of course, the world can put a value on things, for 
things are on its level ; and it is a low level. Things 
appeal to it. 



304 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



XXIV 

But all, the world's coarse thumb 
And finger failed to plumb, 

So passed in making up the main account ; 
All instincts immature. 
All purposes unsure, 

That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the 
man's amount : 

And these finer, spiritual accomplishments that cannot 
be rolled between the thumb and finger, the world takes 
no account of. It cannot. It does not even know they 
exist, for they are spiritually discerned. 

But these immature instincts, these unsure purposes ! 
O, this is what I have so often said before. These are 
what count. These are what God sees and values ; and 
you who have the mind of Christ, you who are seated 
with Him in heavenly places, must learn to judge as He 
does. Don't disregard the struggling instincts and pur- 
poses which, as yet, can find no expression. Don't un- 
dervalue them and overvalue material things. Believe 
in these voiceless groanings of the soul : Some things I 
know are true, and I will hold to them ; some things I 
know ought to be true, and I will proceed as though they 
were, even though I can't prove it — the doubt and un- 
certainty may be God's challenge to my faith ! " 

The man who lays up things, will have the things 
taken from him and only a cipher left. The man who is 
struggling under ever so great discouragement and un- 
certainty towards God and truth, will find some day that 
the ciphers are taken away, but he, the integer, remains. 

Think how many immature instincts and unsure pur- 
poses and voiceless longings go into any piece of work 
that is worth the doing. When you hear the magnificent 



RABBI BEN EZRA 



305 



*' Hallelujah Chorus," do you stop to think of the hun- 
ger and fatigue and work behind it ? Yet they are there 
and give it worth ; for if it doesn't cost, it doesn't count : 
— such is the law of life. 

Both the seen and the unseen, the building and the 
foundation, must swell the man's amount. 

XXV 

Thoughts hardly to be packed 
Into a narrow act. 

Fancies that broke through language and escaped , 
All I could never be, 
All, men ignored in me, 

This I was worth to God, whose wheel the 
pitcher shaped. 

Once he gets that pitcher in, he cannot get it out 
again, and the figure runs through the remaining stanzas 
of the poem. 

XXVI 

Ay, note that Potter's wheel, 
That metaphor ! and feel 

Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,— 
Thou, to whom fools propound, 
When the wine makes its round, 

" Since life fleets, all is change ; the Past gone, 
seize to-day ! " 

XXVII 
Fool! All that is at all. 
Lasts ever, past recall ; 

Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure : 
What entered into thee, 
TAai was, is, and shall be ; 
Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and 
clay endure. 



306 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



XXVIII 
He fixed thee mid this dance 
Of plastic circumstance, 

This Present, thou forsooth, wouldst fain arrest : 
Machinery just meant 
To give thy soul its bent, 

Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently im- 
pressed. 

You want to arrest the Present. You don't want to 
grow old. You want to hold on to this life. You don't 
want to die. But did you ever think that you would 
then be a case of arrested development ? His machinery 
is perfectly adapted to your needs, and He wants to turn 
you off a finished product, that He may see of the travail 
of His soul in you and be satisfied. 

XXIX 

What though the earlier grooves 
Which ran the laughing loves 

Around thy base, no longer pause and press? 
What though, about thy rim, 
Scull-things in order grim 

Grow out in graver mood, obey the sterner stress ? 

The little cupids ran round the cup at first, but now 
intenser needs, and nobler (perhaps grimmer) purposes 
are wrought out. Never mind. Look up. Find God's 
purpose for you, and don't shrink, and don't shirk ! 
What has passed out of your life is not to be compared 
with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 
He has in store for you. 

XXX 

Look not thou down, but up I 
To uses of a cup, 



EABBI BEN EZEA 



307 



The festal board, lamp's flash, and trumpet's 
peal, 

The new wine's foaming flow, 
The Master's lips aglow ! 

Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst 
thou with earth's wheel ? 

That is magnificent ! That is magnificent ! It needs 
no comment. 

XXXI 
But I need now as then, 
Thee, God, who mouldest men : 

And since, not even while the whirl was worst. 
Did I — to the wheel of life 
With shapes and colours rife, 
Bound dizzily — mistake my end, to slake Thy 
thirst : 

"But I need now as then, Thee, God." Just this 
little pathetic appeal. That will be glorious, but it seems 
far off. " Be near me, O God. I need Thee now, now, 
I know I shall have Thee then, but be with me now, 
while the whirl and distraction of life are around me ! " 

Let us not mistake our end. We are cups to quench 
His thirst, and God takes pleasure in a man when he 
fulfills the purpose of his being. 

XXXII 
So, take and use Thy work ; 
Amend what flaws may lurk, 

What strain o' the stuff", what warpings past the 
aim ! 

My times be in Thy hand ! 
Perfect the cup as planned ! 

Let age approve of youth, and death com- 
plete the same ! 



BROKEN PIECES 



THE INCARNATION 



W 



E cannot understand the limitations involved 
in the great self-emptying that was neces- 
sitated by the incarnation. But it has often 



seemed to me that it might be illustrated by a large pipe- 
organ and a small parlour-organ. Imagine that the large 
organ has all its stops shut off but the flute and diapason, 
and then, under this limitation, plays in unison with the 
small organ which has no wider scope. 

That, in some dim way, is what our God did for us 
when He became man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 
The power was all at His disposal, but in His wonderful 
condescension He held it in abeyance, that He might live 
our life and understand" our trials and sorrows and suffer- 
ings, and through His own victory purchase victory for us. 

Do the best that you know, that you may know better. 
If you have a poor watch, still, keep your appointments 
by it, so that when you get a good one, the habit of keep- 
ing appointments will have been formed. 

Follow your conscience. It may be faulty and warped, 
but by following it, you steady and rectify it ; and when it 
is at last perfected, you have learned the lesson of obey- 
ing it, and can go on to perfection under its leadership. 
Follow Jesus Christ at all times : He is standard time 
for the universe ! 



I want a faith that will let me dare to look to all 
four points of the compass from which the winds of 
temptation blow. 



PARTING OF THE WAYS 



311 



312 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



We may refuse to face responsibility, but in so doing 
we lose potential power. We would not refuse if we 
realized the alternative. When the rich young man, who 
called out the Master's love, said, What shall I do 
more?" Christ saw the idol of selfishness, and probed 
him at that point. What would have been the result 
if he had yielded? Maybe Christ would have said, 
**Sell somCf and learn its blessedness." To Abraham 
He said, " I have your heart ; you may keep your 
boy." 

When the road forks, be careful that in refusing the 
difficulty you do not refuse God's allurement to a 
heroic soul. What if your face does grow white and 
your lips blanch and your knees smite together ? You 
can say, God gave me a will, and I will do this right 
thing!" 



THE CRITERION 

" He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the 
world in righteousness by that man whom He hath or- 
dained." — Acts 17 : 31. 

There is a gesture behind that expression. It is 
" That man ! " — as the countryman says and as our chil- 
dren say, **That there man." Why do we condemn 
them? Do we not say in French cef homme-la — "that 
man there " — with the gesture ? 

Now, that man is Christ. God is to judge the world 
by Christ. Christ is God's idea of what a man should 
be. He is the world's idea, too. Then gauge yourself 
up to Him. He became man so that He could judge 
fairly ; He came also to correct our mistaken idea that 
God did not love us. 



BEOKEN PIECES 313 



THE HABIT OF PRAYER 

O, if Jesus Christ was a man of prayer, how dare I 
live without it ! 

Jesus had an accustomed place of prayer. Have you 
a place, a definite place, where you meet your Father ? 

If you have time, always think before you pray. 
There are times of emergency when the only thing for 
you to do is to send up a quick cry for help, and then go 
ahead and do the best you can ; but, if it is possible, 
think first. 



Who helps a little child stirs the heart of Christ. 

Don't be afraid to state the most abstruse truth about 
God to a child. He will understand it far better than 
you do yourself. And sometimes it seems as if at the 
extreme end of life, the Lord grants a second period of 
childhood, not with its inability and ignorance, but with 
its spiritual insight. 

Children who mean to follow Christ must be obedient 
to parents, kind to servants, generous in their play, and 
honourable among themselves. 

When we are put out, we say, Everything goes 
wrong ! " When children are put out, we say they go 
wrong ! 

I read this the other day : Always take the attitude 
of admiration before a child." That is fine. They will 
learn to criticise easily enough, and do it better than you 
ever did ; perhaps because they will have had better 
teachers than our parents were to us — bless them ! 

If the education of our children has been taken out of 
our hands and put into the hands of the angels, shall we 



314 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 



not help some other little children who do not receive 
the training we would have given ours ? 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 

" I will send you another Comforter. I am one; He 
is another. I have been with you; He will be in you." 

You may have noticed that I seldom speak of the Third 
Person of the Trinity as the Holy Ghost. That is His 
Old Testament name ; He comes to us with a new name, 
the name of Christ — (''whom the Father will send in 
My name") — and with more than Christ's power. 
Think of Him as Christ ; — speaking Christ's words, do- 
ing Christ's work, producing in us the Christ-life. I am 
sure you will find this conception of the Holy Spirit a 
great help in your Christian development. Think of 
Him as the Spirit which animated Christ while in the 
flesh, and which could be liberated in His fullness only 
when Christ laid down His human work (of which the 
Spirit had been the animating power), and returned to 
the Father. In that last talk with the disciples He says, 
" I have needed Him ; I have used Him ; but when I go 
away, I will send Him back to you." 

Christ was the Logos, the Word of God ; and the 
Spirit was the indwelling power, giving that Word utter- 
ance, expression. Now He dwells in believers, as He did 
dwell in Christ, giving expression through them to the 
Word of the Father. 

When Christ sends the Holy Spirit, He convicts the 
world of righteousness, because salvation is accomplished, 
and there is no judgment now for them that are in Christ 
Jesus. Judgment for His own being set aside, God's 
righteousness can become operative in us. He convicts 



BEOKEN PIECES 



315 



the world also of judgment, but it is not for us ; we are 
not of the world, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwell 
in us. 



GIVING 

Give freely. Try to catch the Spirit of Christ, who 
pleased not Himself. O, but some of us have learned 
the joy of not pleasing ourselves. Truly, it is more 
blessed to give than to receive. Say it this way, and 
you will realize the blessedness if you never have before, 
— It is more blessed to give than to have to receive. 

Give, gladly and generously, considering those who 
have to receive. 



Christ in the World 
All history is a mystery without His Story. 

Power 

What is your life ? It is even a vapour. What is it 
harnessed to? Steam is a vapour, but it moves the 
world. 

Love 

If we feel neither fear nor love, we are on a level with 
the brutes ; if we have fear and not love, we are slaves \ 
if we have love and some fear, we have passed into the 
region of friendship ; if fear is gone and love only re- 
mains, we have reached intimacy, identity. 

Communion 

May we not at every meal take one little bite of bread 
in remembrance of Him ? 



316 FEAGMENTS THAT EEMAIN 
PRAYER 

With Thy perfect petition we close our imperfect 
ones : 

" Our Father which art in heaven^ Hallowed 
be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will 
be done J on earth as it is in heaven. Give us 
this day our daily bread : and forgive us our 
debts J as we forgive our debtors. And lead us 
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil : 
for Thine is the kingdom and the power, and 
the glory, forever, 

— Amen, 



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